PHS flies high with ‘Arnold the Falconer’

PALMER — Palmer High School music teacher Stan Harris gasped when he realized there was an actual audience for Wednesday night’s dress rehearsal of the school’s annual holiday dinner theater at Palmer Presbyterian Church.

“You’re probably in for quite a treat,” Harris said to about 50 people in the pews before 78 members of the PHS symphonic and jazz choirs entered the room. “Because school was closed last week, we missed some rehearsals. So, you’re in for some rather extraneous, extemporaneous . . . extrapolations!”

Harris explained after the show that the cast of this year’s scholarship fund-raiser “A Madrigal Feast: Arnold the Falconer” had not had a chance to run through the entire show before the dress rehearsal, so it was a tad rough.

“By tomorrow night, it will be 900 percent better — we hope,” he laughed after giving the crew a stern pep talk before they replaced the pews with 10 long dinner tables for Thursday’s opening night.

Even though there were quite a few forgotten lines, missed cues and bumbled tongue twisters, the show still garnered plenty of giggles and enthusiastic applause as its gifted singers and actors filled the historic log chapel with fanciful musings and heart-warming music.

And as of Wednesday night, tonight’s show was already sold out and there were only nine of the 120 tickets for Saturday’s show left to sell, according to Sandy Bachelder, president of the Palmer Music Booster Club.

“We will most likely raise the entire $3,000 needed for the music scholarship program,” Bachelder said.

Senior Chantel Grover, who stole the show as one of two alternating jesters, said she’s having a blast at PHS after transferring from Utah last year.

“I just like to be crazy with this part,” the bubbly 17-year-old said. “I’m not this dramatic in real life.”

Grover said she hopes to continue performing in the future, but her main career goals involve working as a hair stylist while paying her way through college to become a dental hygienist.

She said that although Harris was a little cross with the crew after the rough dress rehearsal, she loves working with him.

“Mr. Harris is so awesome,” she said. “The whole music program is great because of him.”

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.