"The Hundred Dresses" Premieres at Colton High

“I got 100 dresses”, what a young girl would love to say to her friends at school, but alas, this was a line presented by character, Wanda Petronski in “The Hundred Dresses” on Friday, March 14, as families and friends gathered to watch the musical theatre production presented by Colton High School Thespians and Associated Student Body, at Whitmer Auditorium. The children’s show production is based on the young adult book, “The Hundred Dresses" by Ralph Covert and G. Riley Mills, which is based on the Newbery Honor book by Eleanor Estes. Senior at Colton High School, Pradina Palma was manning the ticket booth, while Samantha Segura and Byron Stafford were joking around with each other in the lobby while selling snacks and passing out programs to audience members. House Manager and senior, Denise Ayala was sitting behind the table selling silk flowers cast members had decorated. She shared, “these flowers are a dollar each and people can write their names on it and at intermission, we’ll give them to the cast backstage.” In the lobby, there were pictures of different dresses decorated by students at Grant Elementary School in Colton. This musical is centered on the character, Wanda Petronski, claiming to have 100 dresses in her closet, and her two classmates Maddie and Peggy along with an ensemble of students. Peggy doesn’t believe her and teases her mercilessly. Maddie wants to befriend Wanda, but doesn’t want to be excluded or teased by her fellow classmates. It is not until the end when Wanda moves away, that Maddie realizes she has the courage to speak up and defend her. The play concludes with the students learning the truth about the hundred dresses and the meaning of kindness and acceptance. At intermission, Junior at Colton High, Cecellia Rasso came to school on a Friday night to support her friend, Audrey Ibarra, who played one of the students. Rasso said, “it’s really good, I like how they sing, their songs are pretty funny.” As well as the actors onstage, there were plenty of student crew members working behind the scenes and in the front of the house. Junior at Colton High, Dafne Gurrola Franco, who has been in two high school productions before this, said, “I really like acting, I like seeing other people perform and learn from their experiences.” Director of the show, Janis Aldrich has worked at Colton High for 11 years and has taught classes in English, music, and drama. Her earliest memory of performing was at the age 3 when she sang at her father’s restaurant. Aldrich stated, “There are two mainstream shows, a play in the fall, and a musical in the spring. The drama classes will do smaller shows for their final.” She continued, “Usually we do a major Broadway production, this year we looked at a children’s theatre production. The story was published in the 1940s and it has never been out of print, I remember reading the story as a child, and I saw an ad. I discussed it with the kids and decided that’s what we want to do.” The auditions were open to all high school students. Aldrich shared, “it’s always great working with kids, it’s always exciting to see them find out where hard work can take them.” Freshman, Janeth Aceves, performing for the first time on stage, shared her thoughts, “It was amazing, it was so amazing to meet new people and learn new things. It was just great.”