Joce JohnsonSee The Prom on stage March 1-23 with Pentacle Theatre
Consult the Internet about The Prom and it will tell you the musical is about a group of Broadway actors seeking a cause that will help put them back on the map as respectable stars following a negative theater review. They eventually land in a conservative Indiana town where a teenage girl has been banned from taking her girlfriend to the high school prom.
But Robert Salberg, director of the Pentacle Theatre production of The Prom, believes the heart of the story is much simpler than that: “Ultimately, it’s about understanding someone else’s experience,” he said.
Robert initially found the play’s concept outdated. Perhaps the world is not still concerned about a girl wanting to take another girl to the prom? But then he changed his mind.
“In the current political climate…maybe this is more relevant than I thought it was,” Robert said.
When he saw the New York production, he fell in love with the drama, humor and universal experience of being a teenager in high school.
“There is some drama. But it’s also a pretty hysterical show. It leans itself a lot into the humor of actors making fun of themselves and pokes fun at celebrities and how they can be so out of touch,” Robert said.
He was especially drawn to the role of the school principal and how it deviated from the prototype in high school dramas. For once, he said, the principal is trying to help as best he can. He found himself relating to that character, as well as so many others.
“What it comes down to is a story about being bullied. We’ve all been in a similar situation. Stories about high school are timeless because we’ve all been in high school.”
While the story points to many real and timely issues around discrimination and equality, Robert’s goal with The Prom isn’t to change the minds of anyone who might feel differently.
He hopes, instead, that audiences attending the Pentacle showings in March can leave with a bit more understanding of someone else’s lived experience.
“We’re constantly fighting ignorance and false knowledge about things people are just afraid of. A lot of the bias and bullying that happens in the show stems from fear,” Robert said.
Pentacle Theatre presents The Prom
When: 7:30 p.m. March 1-2, 7-9, 13-16, 21-23 and 2 p.m. March 3, 10, 17 and 23. The March 13 show will benefit Children’s Educational Theatre
Where: Pentacle Theatre, 324 52nd Ave NW
Tickets: https://tickets.pentacletheatre.org
This story originally ran in Press Play Salem issue 19 (Spring 2024)
The Instigator
