Thomas Jefferson gears up for 'Game of Tiaras,' the first performance in new auditorium

There will be sword fights, jabs and lots of laughs on the new Thomas Jefferson High School stage, as students come together to christen the auditorium with its inaugural show on Nov. 21 and 23.

Students will perform “Game of Tiaras,” which combines Shakespeare’s King Lear with Disney princesses and HBO’s famed “Game of Thrones,” at 7 p.m. each night. Tickets are available at the door and are $8 for adults and $5 for students.

“It’s definitely the most entertaining show that I’ve been involved in,” said senior Julia Petrovich, who plays Belle.

The show follows the tale of a king who is stepping down and passing along his crown to one of his daughters. And it’s a battle of princesses — sword fights and all — to see who will triumph.

The district was looking for a show for its fall play that would create a spectacle, as this is the first show to be performed inside the new Thomas Jefferson High School’s “crown jewel,” said director Julie Tipton.

“They’re going to leave here laughing, definitely,” she said. “It’s very Shakespearean. It’s written in a way that it’s cartoonish. It’s really witty.”

Roughly 100 students are partaking in the show this year, with 60 on stage acting and the rest helping behind the scenes.

“I love this show. I think it’s genuinely hilarious I think it will appeal to a large number of people from middle school to high school to adults,” said senior Camryn Lanning, 17, who plays Ellie. “What I love about this show is that it takes a lot of different elements from pop culture and meshes them together.”

Performing for the first time in the much larger TJ theater, where equipment far exceeds what was in the old high school, students and director alike said they’re learning to adjust.

For cast members, even seeing the auditorium for the first time brought them to tears.

“Going from a stage at the last school where we barely had working mics and barely could fit everyone on stage to this where we have so much stage we don’t even know how to act on it is really surreal,” Petrovich said. “We all say all of the time that we don’t feel like we’re at fall play rehearsal. We feel like we’re at a professional production.”

Junior Corey Kuzma, 16, who plays the king, said he pictures the auditorium filled with people while the cast is finally performing on the new stage.

“I’m so excited to do it,” he said.

Cast members have said they’ve had to change their acting because the acoustics are better here and they need to move more dramatically so the entire room can see what they’re doing in the large space.

Tipton said that staff is just starting to learn what the space is capable of in terms of lighting and sound.

“There’s going to be so much going into this that people don’t realize,” Petrovich said. “We had some great shows in the past, but I definitely don’t think anything is going to compare to what we’re about to do.”

Cast members know that people will be coming out just to see the auditorium.

The new space and all that it entails is even more motivating to do well, said senior Gavin King, 17, who plays Peasant No. 1.

His favorite part of this year’s show is how everyone has come together.

“The whole fall play community feels like an extended family,” King said. “We’re all in this together.”

*Parental guidance is recommended for the show because of innuendo and several scenes of cartoon violence.