The Henegar Center for the Arts recently announced a change from “Carrie” to “Footloose” in the Feller Theaters’ summer musical for high-schoolers. “Carrie,” originally written by Stephen King, involves a high-school girl who gets embarrassed in class and gains telekinetic powers which she uses to kill those who bullied her. The story ends with everyone dead in a fire at Prom. 

Sophomore Rudi Larkin said the time simply wasn’t right for “Carrie.”

“It’s been kind of common knowledge that no one at West Shore really wanted to do ‘Carrie’ because of the political climate and issues with the school-shooting stuff. We were thinking it was a little inappropriate to do a show where a girl kills a bunch of students,” he said. “I was relieved it was changed from “Carrie” and then I heard it was ‘Footloose.’ I like the dancing in ‘Footloose’ but it’s not a very challenging show and it’s a bit childish, but it’ll be fun. I don’t really know ‘Carrie’ that well and the only thing I liked about it was that it would’ve been a different kind of show than what normally goes on at these kind of things. Now that it’s ‘Footloose,’ it’s just a little more fun.”

Sophomore Gracie Moravecky said that while she is still looking forward to participating in Feller Theatre Academy’s program, she in’t ecstatic about the new way she will be spending her rehearsal time.

“I was pretty upset,” she said.  “I thought Carrie would have been a completely new and different experience than what Henegar typically does which is why I was excited to do it. I’m not exactly opposed to the change to ‘Footloose,’ but at the same time I’m a little disappointed. I completely understand why they changed it, but it would have been fun, at least for me, to be a part of theatrical genre I’ve never experienced before.”

Moravecky added she is concerned about what skills she and her cast mates will gain from “Footloose” when compared to those they might have experienced with “Carrie.”

“It’s not that ‘Footloose’ isn’t as challenging as ‘Carrie,’ I just think that they’re completely different from each other,” she said. “In ‘Carrie,’ the focus is outstanding acting and dramatic performance while ‘Footloose’ is more dance and musically focused. All in all, I’m all right with the change and still looking forward to a fantastic summer of theater. As long as I’m in a show, I’m fine.”

By Jade Norton