The lights are out in Kaiser High School’s Blackbox Theatre, but not for the purposes of the show. This March, performers were expected to open the theatre doors and host six shows to the public. However, issues with lighting have initiated delays, and eventually, all show dates were entirely postponed with seemingly no clues leading to actual performance dates. However, on the 14th of April, the first show date was internally announced to the cast, and tickets went on sale a couple of days later.
The stage lights in the Blackbox Theatre had yet to be powered, and as such, remained unfunctional for months. This has essentially halted performance since a majority of it relies on the usage of such lights. In the meantime, a preview was held on the 10th of March specifically for family and friends of the actors. Following that, there was no given information regarding show dates in any way for over a month. On a similar note, no rehearsals were held in between the time of the performance and the time of the announcement of new show dates. The closest thing to this was a short discussion between the cast members going over strengths and weaknesses of the preview.
Before the show, Drama club president and show director Allison Park has been hard at work making sure that everything went to plan. Rehearsals began early in the school year, only involving lead roles. In February of 2026, actors playing ensemble roles were brought into all future rehearsals. Backstage members were involved just days before the intended date of the first show, including auxiliary, makeup & stage prop roles. Lighting issues had persisted and were actively being worked on by Drama Club advisor Michael Bataluna (referred to as Mr. Bataluna). Only the room lights and spotlight were working.
On Friday, March 6th, a message was sent to all cast members, indicating that due to the lighting issues, show dates would be pushed back significantly, with no real idea as to when performances would actually occur. Following the preview and feedback session, there was radio silence up until the 12th of April, when the first rehearsal in a month was planned to be held. This got cancelled due to Bataluna’s absence from the campus, but additional rehearsals would occur on the 18th and 19th of the same month, a week before the first performance.
This is not the first time the drama club has fallen victim to hurdles. As an example of this, the drama club had performed Alice In Wonderland the previous school year, but due to a lack of performers, people often had to take up multiple roles at a time, with the current actor of Wadsworth, Joe Fujika, mentioning that some people had to take up almost five separate roles at the time, due to the scarce actor count.
Thankfully, the show ran smoothly following the hurdles, with an additional show also being held on Sunday, May 3rd. Despite the happy ending, it does serve as a reminder of how surprising life is and how we work around such unpredictability. Ultimately, the way life goes about throwing hurdles is something that we just have to live with, regardless of our preferences. And when it does throw hurdles like this, the best we can do is adapt to it accordingly and go about as normal. What you do next really depends on how you’re willing to adapt, but the best clue we can give you is; don’t leave yourself in the dark. Find the lights, then find your way out of your situation.
