A winning ‘Bride’ not inconceivable

Jacqui Brown

It might not have been Carnegie Hall but you wouldn’t have known it

by the reaction of the audience as the cast of “The Princess Bride”

hit the stage Thursday afternoon at John Muir Middle School in

Burbank.

Nearly 350 students showed up for both the Wednesday night

performance and Thursday’s matinee.

From the kidnapping of the young Princess Buttercup, played by

eighth-grader Sophia D’Andrea, to the sword fighting scenes with

Lynwood McCassie, the young man who stole her heart, it was clear

that the ten weeks of laborious rehearsals were well worth the effort

by the cast and crew.

“I loved the film and the book and I thought the students would

really get a kick out of it,” said Stephen James, drama coach and

director of the play. “We spent a lot of time rehearsing for this and

everyday the cast brought more of their character to life.”

Lynwood, who played the lead role of Westley, said that nerves

were an issue during rehearsals, but nothing was going to stop them

from putting on a great show.

“We’ve been working on this thing so hard and to perform it in

front of people -- it’s just awesome,” Lynwood said.

Donna Collier and her third-period costume making class designed

and created all the costumes for the nearly 30-member cast.

“The kids started at the beginning of school, learning how to cut

patterns and we’ve been sewing ever since,” Collier said. “The

students put in a lot of hard work on this and it was nice to finally

see the finished product up on stage.”

Lilit Kepenekian, who was responsible for putting together one of

the princess’s gowns, thought the production turned out well.

“The play was really great,” Lilit said. “It was really nice to

see how great the costumes looked on stage.”

Brooks Gardner, acting coach and director at Burbank High School,

said he came to check out the competition and to support the effort

of his friend James.

“It was great and very well done,” Brooks said. “It was a lot of

fun.”