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Water Street Bridge closed until Monday

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Your view: Tell your legislators to support SB 912, HB 1977

<p>Soon after you meet Carrie White in the musical that bears her name, you&#8217;ll hear her screaming in the girls locker room.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m bleeding! I&#8217;m dying!&#8221; she shrieks.</p><p>When the gym teacher realizes one of her students was never forewarned about monthly periods, Miss Gardner will of course try to calm Carrie and explain that menstruation is normal &#8212; but not before the other girls have pounced on this new ammunition.</p><p>Now they have one more excuse to taunt a classmate who has been their target for a long time.</p><p>Why do they pick on Carrie so much?</p><p>&#8220;Because she&#8217;s different,&#8221; said Alivia Serkosky, 15, of Exeter, who is part of the cast of &#8220;Carrie,&#8221; the musical KISS Theatre will present Nov. 8 through Nov. 10.</p><p>Do her clothes make her stand out?</p><p>&#8220;Ooh, yeah,&#8221; cast members replied, almost in unison, before a recent rehearsal. &#8220;Big time. Her mom&#8217;s made her very, very religious; very conservative.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;She has long skirts and flowing shirts that don&#8217;t reveal anything,&#8221; said Gianna Evans, 14, of Dallas, who plays Carrie.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like Amish style,&#8221; said Jessica Zimmermann, 15, of Mountain Top, who plays Carrie&#8217;s mom.</p><p>Carrie&#8217;s mom is Margaret, who doesn&#8217;t exactly comfort her bullied daughter. In fact, you could say Carrie faces her worst bully at home &#8212; especially when you watch Zimmermann, as Margaret, drag a kneeling Carrie across the floor and admonish her to &#8220;pray for your wicked soul&#8221; because now Carrie is a woman, like Eve. And Eve, Margaret says, &#8220;was weak.&#8221;</p><p>Okaaaay &#8230;.</p><p>&#8221; &#8216;Carrie&#8217; was written in 1972, that&#8217;s 47 years ago, and the themes still ring true today,&#8221; director Joe Sheridan said. &#8220;Religious fanatics. Bullying. Peer pressure. Revenge. Entitlement.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;You take away Carrie&#8217;s telekinesis and replace it with an AK-47 and you could have another Sandy Hook and Columbine,&#8221; he said somberly, adding KISS Theatre is presenting &#8220;the regular show, not a junior version.&#8221;</p><p>Cast member Alexandria Stasukinas, 17, Plymouth, wrote a proposal advocating for KISS to stage the musical, because she enjoys its music and believes its message is important.</p><p>&#8220;You shouldn&#8217;t bully people,&#8221; she said. &#8220;You could push them over the edge.&#8221;</p><p>Anyone familiar with Steven King&#8217;s story knows Carrie will be pushed too far, and she&#8217;ll unleash her telekinetic powers to destroy her school and everyone in it. Only one student &#8212; Sue, played by Stasukinas &#8212; will escape, at least physically. Sue is one classmate who regrets mistreating Carrie and wants to make her feel more accepted.</p><p>At the other extreme, a popular girl named Chris refuses to follow the gym teacher&#8217;s directive to apologize to Carrie &#8212; and sets about trying to make the upcoming prom as upsetting as possible for the school&#8217;s long-time misfit.</p><p>Why would she do that?</p><p>&#8220;She&#8217;s a jerk,&#8221; cast member Aidan Mateos, 15, of Wyoming, offered a simple explanation. &#8220;She makes everyone feel below her.</p><p>&#8220;She&#8217;s kill-or-be-killed,&#8221; added cast member Luke Sullivan, 17, of Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t call her evil,&#8221; said Sara Mascelli, 16, of Mountain Top, who plays Chris. &#8220;I think she has deep-rooted problems in her own life. I get a sense of abuse.&#8221;</p><p>It doesn&#8217;t help that their high school is a kind of pressure cooker, as described in what Sullivan said is the &#8220;best song&#8221; in the show, a number called &#8220;In.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;It perfectly explains how people in high school feel,&#8221; he said. &#8220;How they want to fit in.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Gianna Evans as Carrie pleads with her mother, played by Jessica Zimmermann </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_carrie.and_.mom_.jpg</photo0><caption0>Gianna Evans as Carrie pleads with her mother, played by Jessica Zimmermann </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_carrie.and_.luke_.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Luke Sullivan and Alivia Serkosky sing &#8216;In,&#8217; a number Sullivan said &#8216;perfectly explains how people in high school feel.&#8217;  </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_carrie.and_.luke_.jpg</photo1><caption1>Luke Sullivan and Alivia Serkosky sing &#8216;In,&#8217; a number Sullivan said &#8216;perfectly explains how people in high school feel.&#8217;  </caption1><photoCredit1>Submitted photo </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_carrie.and_.sue_.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Alexandria Stasukinas, in her role as Sue Snell, answers questions from an interrogator about what happened to her high school classmates on a long-ago prom night. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_carrie.and_.sue_.jpg</photo2><caption2>Alexandria Stasukinas, in her role as Sue Snell, answers questions from an interrogator about what happened to her high school classmates on a long-ago prom night. </caption2><photoCredit2>Submitted photo </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_carrie.and_.destruction.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Director Joe Sheridan directs KISS student thespians through &#8216;The Destruction&#8217; scene. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_carrie.and_.destruction.jpg</photo3><caption3>Director Joe Sheridan directs KISS student thespians through &#8216;The Destruction&#8217; scene. </caption3><photoCredit3>Submitted photo </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO </strong></p><p><strong>What: </strong>&#8220;Carrie&#8221; the musical</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> KISS Theatre, 400 East End Centre, Wilkes-Barre</p><p><strong>When</strong>: 7 p.m. Nov. 8; 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Nov. 9 and 2 p.m. Nov. 10</p><p><strong>Tickets</strong>: 570-829-1901 or kisstheatre.org</p></factboxMeta></div>

KISS Theatre to present ‘Carrie’ the musical