Chaos erupted two weeks before opening night of CCHS’s theatre department’s production of Wyrd Sisters when the director suddenly quit.  

Putting on a show requires lots of time commitment and unity between the performers and the creative team. When a show has one or both of those things that are not committed the show spends a lot of time stalling and not getting work done.

During the weekend of November 15-18 the Carbondale community High School Fine Arts Department put on a production of Wyrd Sisters written by Stephen Briggs, adapted from Terry Pratchett’s novel a parody of Shakespeare’s  Hamlet and Macbeth. 

Starting with Jennifer Caudell Director and TK Kelly as costume designer the play was slowly losing cast members as they dropped the show one by one, due to a lack of returning students there was lower morale and commitment.

The action all came to a head when only 12 days before the show was supposed to first grace the stage, the news that Jennifer Caudell had to step down due to health reasons.

Leaving the Fine Arts Department scrambling for a director, the hero was found in the wonderful costume designer and new Teachers Aid at CCHS TK Kelly.

Now Kelly stepping in and saving the day did not lift all worries, in fact they just shifted them on to their Plate. They knew they had to pick up on someone else’s vision then expand upon it, while it is already in motion.

“Terrifying, anxiety driven and slightly optimistic. I had never directed before so I was hoping that past experience acting and in the theatre in general would help” said Kelly when asked 

The lack of commitment presented from the directorial side for things was also periled in the students. When many students dropped out, there was a scramble to find new actors.

One example of this was when the original actor for Duchess had to step down due to scheduling conflicts, Junior Cayce Etherington came in and was able to capture the stage and delivered an effective evil Queen. 

“I was in a completely new environment and in a sort of rushed way, but l had a lot of fun learning… how to step into the role and how to step into the program.” says Etherington. 

Thanks to the efforts of the whole cast and crew, with special thanks to TK Kelly, the show was not only able to go on but it was a rather successful show.