7:00. Casa Grande’s NMU is filled with audience members, all eagerly anticipating the beginning of the production they’ve all come to see: “Carrie: The Musical.” As the lights in the house go down and the music turns on, the show begins.
SPOILERS AHEAD: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
For decades, Casa Grande’s drama department only performed plays. They were fantastic pieces of art, but many young actors wanted to try something new: musicals. And so, four years ago, during the 2022-2023 school year, drama teacher Jonathan Mazer as well as choir and band teacher Sean Millard banded together to put on “Rock of Ages,” a musical set in the 1980s about the fights for love and rock-n-roll. The show was a smashing success, and the next year, the drama department produced the spectacular “Legally Blonde.” After another fantastic six-show run with “Mean Girls” in the 2024-2025 school year, the program decided that this year, they’d take a different route, moving into a new style of musical with this year’s “Carrie: the Musical.”
“Rock of Ages,” “Legally Blonde,” and “Mean Girls” were primarily upbeat and fun, featuring plots that ended happily for nearly every character. “Carrie,” on the other hand, is based on Steven King’s 1974 debut horror novel of the same name. It does not come with a happy ending – instead, the show ends in carnage, with nearly every character becoming a casualty of Carrie, including herself. It was a change from Casa’s previous productions, but the shift was very much welcomed.
The show opens with the senior class of Ewen High School in Chamberlain, Maine expressing their deep desire to belong in the high school hierarchy, a theme we see reflected throughout the show. We meet our main character, Carrie White, played by Casa Grande senior Samara Castro, whose first period arrives while she’s in the shower after gym class. Her female classmates mock her terror until they’re stopped by the gym teacher, Miss Lynn Gardner, played by sophomore Astrid Downen. As she leaves school, dismissed early to take care of herself after the incident, Carrie sings to the audience about how she wishes to be seen by her peers and the world at large. Having been bullied since childhood for her lack of social awareness and religious fanaticism encouraged by her mother, Carrie just wants someone to accept her. Simultaneously, she’s discovering that something is different inside of her: she’s developing telekinetic powers, the first sighting of which was the shattering of a lightbulb during the vicious bullying. When she gets home to her mother, Margaret White played by Scarlett Peepe (12), she tries to explain what happened that day. Margaret views the arrival of Carrie’s menstruation cycle as an indication that Carrie has sinned, so she locks her daughter in a closet as punishment, where Carrie continues to practice her telekinesis in secret.
The girls who bullied Carrie in the gym locked room, led by spoiled bully Chris Hargensen, played by junior Summer Pekkain, and her best friend, Sue Snell, played by sophomore Dex Haley, join the other seniors for a party. When Sue begins to show some remorse for the event that occurred earlier that day, Chris, aided by her boyfriend, Billy Nolan, played by junior Shay Mughal, insists that situations like that are just a part of life, and that she would rather be the one on top than get trampled. The two get into an argument before Sue leaves the party, much to Chris’ irritation. The next day at school, Miss Gardner demands the girls apologize to Carrie for their behavior. Chris vehemently refuses, and so she’s suspended and therefore banned from the upcoming senior prom. Sue, out of guilt, encourages her boyfriend, Tommy Ross, played by Cloud Hairston (11), to ask Carrie to the prom instead of her. When he does, after a bit of hesitation, Carrie accepts. Her mother tries to forbid her from going, but Carrie insists she’s going to attend, revealing her powers through the furious slam of windows.
Chris and Billy, wanting revenge against Carrie, sneak into the gym to prepare for a cruel prank. They fill a bucket with pig’s blood and rig it up to pour all over Carrie during the dance. With no idea of this plan, Carrie excitedly prepares for the night, despite her mother’s urges to stay home, as the rest of the cast sings excitedly about this in the song, “A Night They’ll Never Forget.” After Carrie is picked up by Tommy, Margaret relies on the comforts of her religion, and comes to the conclusion that Carrie must be sacrificed.
As prom begins, students compliment Carrie’s homemade dress, and she’s starting to feel like she’s finally being
accepted by her peers. She and Tommy dance together as Chris and Billy prepare their trap, aided by their friend Norma, played by senior Annabelle Wiatrek Trum, who’s stuffing the ballot box to make sure Carrie wins Prom Queen. Sue sneaks in and notices this. She tries to warn Miss Gardner but is dismissed. As Tommy and Carrie are crowned Prom King and Queen, Billy releases the bucket, completely soaking Carrie in the pig’s blood. Humiliated, Carrie’s rage overtakes her, and she uses her powers to lock everyone inside of the gym. Sue watches as Carrie destroys everything and everyone inside, slaughtering her classmates with no weapons except her mind and their own bodies. She leaves Tommy for last, snapping his neck as a final goodbye.
Carrie goes back to her home, hoping for comfort from her mother, but is instead met with a blade. Hurt, both physically and emotionally, Carrie uses her powers to stop Margaret’s heart. Sue hurries into the house and finds Carrie on the verge of death, and so Sue holds her until she passes away.
Throughout the show, Sue is often either left alone on stage or in an isolated spotlight, speaking to investigators who are trying to understand what actually happened on that fateful night. As the only survivor, Sue is the only source they have, serving as a narrator intermittently.
The cast of 16 students, helped out by ten-odd members of the tech crew, performed six fantastic shows, opening Mar. 20 and closing on Mar. 29. Staff involved in the show included Mazer and Millard, Choreographer Bridget Codoni, Assistant Director and Costume Designer Lilah Fellman, and dozens of others. Without their help, the show could not have been the hit it was with the Casa Grande community.
Castro’s performance as Carrie consistently brought down the house. In preparation for the role, she did thorough research on any and all versions of her role “to fully understand different interpretations of the character.” The work paid off – throughout the show, Castro fully absorbed the role, showing the range of emotions from hopeful desire to belong to fury directed at the people who have been so cruel to her, and every moment in between. And that’s not even mentioning her vocals. Castro’s easy switch between a powerful vibrato and a sweet mix-belt show a mastery of her own vocal ability. Castro carefully considered every choice she would make throughout the show, every cross, every riff, and made sure her performance was the best she could make it. The effort was well-noticed: on May 3, Castro won the Sara Bareilles Award for Outstanding Lead Actress. This victory means she will be competing at the Jimmy Awards, which are the National High School Musical Theater Awards, in New York City on June 22. She’ll get to perform at Broadway’s Miskoff Theatre, technically making her Broadway debut. All of us here at Casa will be cheering her on!
Acting alongside Castro was Scarlett Peepe, whose interpretation of Margaret White captured the duality of a religious fanatic and an overprotective mother with brilliant ability. Her sharp movements when scolding and punishing Carrie for her supposed sins contrasted sharply with her desperate desire to keep her daughter safe from the world. Her use of a strong belt commandeered the space, showing the power she’s held over Carrie throughout her whole life, her religious teachings inadvertently being the reason her daughter has been so harshly bullied. Peepe took charge of the role, making every audience member gasp as she decided she must sacrifice her daughter and violently stabbed her in the back. The audience hung on to her every spoken and sung word.
Summer Pekkain as Chris Hargensen and Dex Haley as Sue Snell portrayed two different types of popular high school girls with skill. Although the two characters have been close friends since childhood, they’re two fundamentally different people: Pekkain’s Chris views the world as something she must conquer in order to avoid being taken down herself, while Haley’s Sue is empathetic and wants to right the wrongs she’s been apart of throughout her time in school, specifically towards Carrie. Her sacrifice of the perfect prom night so that Carrie could have it instead showed a strong sense of empathy that had the whole audience empathizing with her. Chris, on the other hand, pulled everyone in for a different reason: Pekkain’s performance of the pinnacle of high school cruelty made her so fun to hate throughout the show, and yet, she still made the crowd understand where she was coming from. Pekkain managed to juggle the juxtaposition of cruelty and a deep desire to fit in rather than be ousted perfectly, creating a person rather than just a character.
The rest of the cast was phenomenal, fully deserving of their own nomination at the Sara Bareilles Awards for Overall Cast Performance. A performance from Cloud Hairston as the kind jock Tommy Ross shows the audience that maybe things can get better for Carrie, that her classmates can care for her, before it all goes terribly wrong. He reminds those watching that everyone has the possibility to be kind, even if they need a little push to do so. The group supported their cast throughout each and every number and scene, filling out the world of Carrie: the Musical in a way that made the audience forget it wasn’t real. They remembered their own experiences with bullying in high school, or the joy of their senior prom night, or the love they felt with a high school sweetheart. The world was fully fleshed out by every character, from Frieda — played by senior Lila Rader — to Freddy and Reverend Bliss — played by freshman Max Williams. They made the space feel human in a way not many other productions could.
According to Castro, “the most difficult part of the show was getting all the tech right . . . the levitation [and] the fog blood pouring,” but Mazer’s directing and technology elements provided by: Set Designer Laurynn Malilay, Lighting Designer Elise Clark, Sound Designer Davin Tillman, Lightboard Operator Connor Gehrke, and Soundboard Operator Brandon Bell, made it seamless. When the “pig’s blood” dropped onto Carrie, a mix of lighting, sound effects, and smoke made it easy for her to quickly switch into a new dress, much to the audience’s surprise – although that quickly turned to fear at the upcoming destruction sequence, during which every character is killed by Carrie, shocking the audience back into the reality that this is not a happy show.
While the show’s themes might not be joyful, the experience of going to see it was certainly exciting. It was a 10/10 production, and most, if not all, of the audience could say with confidence that it was a night they’ll never forget.
