The upcoming WHHS theater production, “Carrie”, was first featured as a novel written by Stephen King in 1974. Two years later it was brought live to the world of musical theater.

The musical carries out the story of a young teenage girl with telekinetic abilities being tormented by her peers.

“She’s [Carrie] really sheltered and gets bullied in school. [Eventually,] this one girl, Sue, feels bad for what they did, and is like, ‘how can I fix this,’” Andrew Canter, ‘25, said.

Canter has been a part of the theater productions for five years and has participated in nine different productions. He plays the role of Stokes in Carrie.

“He’s part of the in-crowd, ‘popular’ kids, he’s[also] kind of a nerd,” Canter said.

Another one of the many cast members is Jonathan Rubin, ‘26, who has been a part of theater productions for nearly 10 years. Rubin’s current role in Carrie is a part of the ensemble, and one of the many background dancers and singers.

“It’s a lot, [and] it’s very time consuming. It’s been hard to balance theater with homework and personal life in general,” Rubin said.

“Carrie” opensin the WHHS auditorium from February 16-18th.

“Everything is still quite chaotic at this point in time, but it’s gonna get done and it’s going to be great,” Rubin said.

Another member of the ensemble, Tyrone Hall, ‘25, has acted in theater for two years. He has acted previously in the shows “Guys and Dolls Jr.” and “Carrie”.

“I’m going to try to bring the most life into my individual character in the ensemble as I can,” Hall said.

In “Carrie”, one of the major climatic moments in the story is the main character gaining the ability of telekinetic abilities, creating a complex setting on the stage

“There’s gonna be stuff that moves around, people are gonna get their necks snapped, which [the crew]is going to be taught how to do convincingly. There’s [also] going tobe chairs that slide around and stuff that falls off the wall. It’s gonna be really cool,” Canter said.

During the tedious process of producing the play, many issues have arisen. Including the show nearly being canceled after Michael Sherman and Helen Raymond-Goers, the advisors of the plays and theater teachers, were not getting paid when they should have or as much as they should have gotten. Later this issue was partially resolved.

“They got paid last minute, that was the issue. It’s been a recurring issue,” Hall said.

Despite any problems that have arisen, the WHHS theater program has continued to carry on.

“We were at the point where if we didn’t get paid in January, then we made the decision to stop all after school activities until payment. It didn’t come to that because we were paid in January,” Sherman said.

Some individual challenges faced by Canter himself include memorizing all the small but significant details in the musical.

“There’s a lot of parts and it’s a pretty long show, so it’s just a lot to remember. It’s also a pretty mature show for a high school to put on. Dealing with the mature subjects maturely is hard to do, but I think we’re handling it pretty well,” Canter said.

The play can be a sentimental story for viewers as it covers topics like bullying, isolation and self-doubt.

“This show shows a lot about peer pressure and about things in high school that get left out more often,” Rubin said.

“It’s all about the effects of bullying and ostracizing people from your life. It’s definitely hard to confront that because it might even make you realize that you may have done some of those things in the past.” Clark Sayre, ‘26, ensemble, said.