Blood will rain down on the stage in October as theatre debuts “Carrie the Musical.”

This show will be one of many to come for the theatre department and will be student-led for the most part. Opening day will be Friday, Oct. 22 and the last performance will be on Sunday, Oct. 24. With performances the weekend before Halloween in the CPHS Little Theatre, the desired mood will be set for this chilling, thrilling production, according to the cast members. Although excitement is high for this production, COVID-19 restrictions are still in place, which may cause a few changes to how the show will take place.

“We were really excited to be back, so we just assumed, with the mask precautions, that we would be able to do 100% of what we used to do,” Theatre Arts director Alisa Mirabella said. “So the new audience restrictions are hurting us a little bit.”

The Theatre Department is looking at certain restrictions on their shows, such as limited seating and mask recommendations in order to keep students and audience members safe. Actors in the show are worried about the disconnect with the audience due to the limited seating and the disconnect with the actors while performing because of masks hiding their expressions.

“As of now, we are probably going to have to do limited seating which always sucks because you kind of need the energy of the audience to keep the show on its feet and to keep the actors excited to be doing what they’re doing,” senior Lucy Walter, who will play Carrie, said.

Despite the COVID regulations, cast members are thrilled to be able to gain experience for future opportunities in the theater industry and create a stronger bond with their peers while discovering what works best for them, decision making wise, in this student-led production, according to senior Stage Manager MJ Kelly.

“I think this show being student-led is great,” Kelly said. “It teaches us leadership skills and it lets us work more closely [to] get to know our fields, for when we want to go into the ‘real world’.’’

Not only will these students get practice with leadership skills and responsibility, but it’s also easier on the adults that have other projects they are working on.

“We have three rehearsals going on at the same time right now,” Mirabella said. “We have ‘Carrie,’ the ‘Black Box show’ and the tap lessons for ‘Something Rotten’. I can’t be in all three places and neither can the Tech directors, so we rely a lot on the kids.”

Some of the other things these students are looking forward to are the specific effects that will go into this show. “Carrie” is well-known for its special effects, especially the famous pig blood scene, and students are looking forward to bringing these scenes to life, according to Kelly.

“The blood is going to be a challenge and we’re talking about working with some fog possibly,” Kelly said. “Carrie has to make things float and levitate, so the effects are going to be crazy. [I’m] very excited to figure out how we get to do all that.”

On the other hand, there are also worries about how the effects will go with the short amount of time they have left. The cast is specifically focused on working with the special effects and getting them ready for the performances.

“I’m also a little worried about the blood drop because that’s a lot of work and we only get one rehearsal with it, because it’s so expensive to buy fake blood,” Walter said. “So if it doesn’t go well, I’m going to be nervous for the shows.”

Overall, Walter says the cast has full confidence in their final product, but are still pressured about the limited time they have. These well-known scenes with their well-known effects will take a lot of work to make sure they are ideal for the show.

“We’re sort of rushed because we haven’t done anything in so long, so the kids really wanted to get right to it,” Mirabella said. “We [haven’t] done a play in three weeks.”

This production will also be a fundraiser, as with most of their shows, according to Mirabella. But instead of just fundraising for their next production, they are saving up for their trip to the Fringe Festival in Scotland next summer.

“The Fringe Festival is the biggest theater festival in the world and we were invited to perform,” Kelly said. “So, yes, we’re trying to fundraise for other shows, but not only that. We’re trying to fundraise to get to Scotland and be able to perform at this festival, which would be a great opportunity.”

The Fringe Festival is a theatre festival held in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is one of the biggest theatre festivals in the world. The Theatre Department has been invited to perform at the festival next year. With fundraising for the Fringe Festival, working with new special effects and coming back from a year of being gone, cast members want to do the best they can to make this show memorable, according to Kelly.

“I want to put on the best show we can in the time that we have,” Kelly said. “I also want everyone to have fun while doing it. I want everyone to be able to look back and say ‘oh yeah ‘Carrie,’ that was a good time and I’m very proud of what I ended up doing’.”

“Carrie” will be the Theatre Department’s first horror show and will most likely attract a large student turnout because of the mature topics, according to Walter. For this reason, the show will be intended for mature audiences only.

“We’ve never done a horror show,” Mirabella said. “It’s considered a current pop culture show and it’s a big risk because it’s pretty strong. It’s about bullying more than anything else, and it’s for mature audiences only because there’s blood and there’s violence and there’s some strong language. It’s so exciting because they sound great already.”

With encouragements of a student-led show, figuring out special effects, and getting invited to the Fringe Festival, cast members are working hard to make this show memorable while still making sure they have enough time and are following the proper safety procedures for COVID, according to Walter.

“I’m a little bit nervous, just because it’s been like a year and a half since I’ve done a musical production,” Walter said. “But I think everyone is really excited to finally get to perform and it’ll be surreal when we get back on the stage.”

Tickets for “Carrie the Musical” are on sale for $12 on the Theatre website.