Will you be this year’s Prom Queen? Are you ready for this year’s Prom dance? We’ve got a couple more members of the ‘teens’ from Tidewater Players’ production of The Prom to get you totally psyched about coming out to see the show!

Thanks so much for sitting with us! Really thrilled to be talking with you about The Prom. Tell us who you are and who you play!

Kaitlyn Winner: I’m Kaitlyn Winner, I’m the Dance Captain for this show, I’m also a teen, and sometimes a ‘Godspell’ member. I’m a little bit of everything.

Why did you want to come out and be a part of The Prom?

Kaitlyn: Truly because there’s a lot of dancing in it and I am a dancer in my heart. I also know the choreographers, I dance with them elsewhere, so when I learned that they were choreographing the show, I was very excited to do it. It’s my first musical. Specifically this show, getting to be a part of the area debut, it was really, really exciting for a show like this to make its way into Harford County.

Why do you think it’s an important show for people to be doing here in Harford County or for you to be a part of?

Kaitlyn: Truthfully, I’m from Baltimore County, Towson specifically and when I went to college, all throughout the area, we had arts at heart. Now I know that Havre de Grace, as this lovely small city, really respects the arts, and admittedly I’m not overly familiar with Harford County as a whole, but what I’ve learned is that it’s somewhat of a close-minded area, compared to areas of Baltimore that I am familiar with. Like I said, I’m not that familiar with Harford County so it’s a lot of word of mouth rather than my own personal experiences but I think it’s gutsy— in a great way— to do a show like this.

You mentioned that you teach and do things and are therefore out of high school. Was your high school experience similar or different to this high school experience?

Kaitlyn: It was very similar. I went to an all-girls Catholic School, Notre Dame Prep, and I graduated there in 2014. Outside of the close-mindedness, I loved my experience there. I loved my friends there and I loved my teachers there. Overall there, the experience for me, was fantastic. But for example, in our alumni magazine, if you get married to somebody of the same identifying gender as you? You’re not allowed to be published with any news of your life or anything like that. Prom was very much tolerant of “going with a group of friends” but you absolutely could not sign the form and have another girl be your date. Then any boy we did list as our date, they had to go through and meet every single teacher, shake their hand, state their intentions, etc. This really resonates with a lot of what I did see there.

And you did go to your prom? What was your prom like?

Kaitlyn: I did. And it was good for me. I recognize that that is a very biased and privileged perspective, given that I am straight, I have been with the same person— for four years at that time. I had very little anxiety surrounding my prom experience, which I am grateful for. But I saw a lot of my friends go through a much more difficult circumstance and situation. I am mindful that I had a good time at my prom while others definitely didn’t. That is something I wish I had been more aware of when I was in school. I was more focused on my friend group and how we approached the situation. Looking back on that now and seeing how absolutely ridiculous some of those rules were is nuts to me.

You are a very emotionally intelligent individual. Do you remember your prom dress?

Kaitlyn: Well…there’s a story. My now-husband was my boyfriend at the time. He went to an all-guys Catholic school— Loyola-Blakefield. They had different rules for how the girls could dress at his prom verses at my school. At my school, the girls had a very strict dress code. I was in a long dress with no spaghetti straps and no low or open backs. My dress for that was a green seafoam. It was a tank-dress with not-a-very-low v-neck, all the way down to the floor, but it did have lots of glitter. My now-husband’s prom, less strict with the dress code, so that had a super low-v, open back all the way down and that one was covered in glitter. It was also seafoam green but that was purely by coincidence. Those two dresses had very different vibes.

Please tell me that your teen ensemble character is wearing a seafoam green dress to this prom.

Kaitlyn: You know I haven’t even thought about it. As of right now she’s decked out in purple! I tried to go with a royal purple to match my Converse. Had to match the shoes!

If you had to pick a perfect prom theme, what theme would you do?

Kaitlyn: I’d want it somewhere on the water— I know that’s totally random— but a waterfront location.

Wait— on the water? Or on a boat?

Kaitlyn: Oh! A boat! I didn’t even think of that! That would be totally awesome! Except maybe for people who get seasick. Or who end up crying and having prom-drama and want to leave. If you’re not having a good time or having a fight…yeah nevermind. On the water, but not on a boat, with a waterfront view. I liked the fanciness of prom but I don’t know that it needs to come with a theme. We didn’t have a theme. We didn’t have a prom queen and king, we didn’t do anything traditional except for the fact that you had to bring a guy or bring no one. So I would have to think about it more to come up with he perfect theme.

Why do you want people to come and see The Prom?

Kaitlyn: With this show in particular, I think with the modernization of theatre is very, very cool and that isn’t something that people necessarily think about when they think about theatre. They think about the traditional shows, the Disney-interpretations, and you lose a lot of the extra modernization there. Additionally, I don’t think the movie was very good, so I would like for people to come out and see the good, live version of it rather than the movie that showed up on Netflix. I want the live stage memory in their mind rather than the movie in their mind. I also recently learned that there are quite a few companies doing The Prom and I think because we’re first— we have to set the scene! I don’t want to be compared to the other productions, I hope the other productions will be compared to us. It’s so funny because this is a show about acceptance but now it looks like there’s this big Harford County-Baltimore County competition to do it first and do it best. It’s such a great show though.

If you had to sum up your experience with The Prom here at Tidewater Players in just one word, which word would you use?

Kaitlyn: I need to think of a good word. I’ve got a lot rolling around in my head! I think I would say— and this is just in my perspective— but welcoming. It’s my first musical, it’s my first experience with pretty much almost everyone in this cast. And I know it sounds cliché but not only have I felt welcomed I have felt accepted and valued for what I came with— which was not singing or a ton of acting but just the dancing. It’s been a really welcoming experience and a lot of high energy too.

Thank you so much for that wonderful and insightful chat, Kaitlyn! I cannot wait to see the show. Who do we have next? Anna? Thanks for coming to sit with us!

Anna Odell: I’m Anna Odell and I’m in the teen ensemble.

Why did you want to be a part of The Prom?

Anna: I had not been involved with theatre since before Covid. I really, really missed it. This show has a great message and I know it’s a big dance show with lots of high-energy numbers. I just really wanted to get back into it, to be with a big group of people dancing and singing and having fun.

Why is this an important show for Tidewater Players to be doing or for you to be a part of?

Anna: There’s a lot going on in the world and this show has a very important message. I think even here in Harford County there’s a lot of progress that needs to happen and this show is a great jumping-off point. I also know it’s the area premiere of this show. Bringing it out into this area is a really cool thing to do.

Are you in high school? Are you out of high school?
Anna: I’m actually out of high school and out of college. We’ve got quite a big range of people, I think you spoke with Brigid already— she’s in eighth grade— and then you have me, who’s out of college and I teach sixth grade.

Did you go to your high school prom?

Anna: I did.

Do you remember it?

Anna: Vividly. I went to four proms. All four years. I was friends with a lot of seniors my freshman year, and I had a boyfriend for all three other proms— he and I are not still together— but all three of those proms, his senior, my junior, and my senior, we went together to all three of them. There were highs and lows of the night for all of them. I’m really glad I went, and it was a lot of fun.

Did you end up with four different prom dresses?

Anna: I actually wore the same dress for three of the four years. And then for my senior prom I got a new dress. It was very out of my comfort zone for the time. I was feeling it though. It was this orchid purple and it had a sweetheart neckline, it was very fitted, it had a very high slit, it was really an amazing dress. It made me feel fantastic and that’s how every person who goes to their prom should feel.

Do you remember any of the four themes?

Anna: One of them was the Roaring 20’s. One of them was… a masquerade but no one really did anything with that theme, which was super lame. And I don’t remember the other two.

Have you been given the prom dress that your ensemble character is going to wear?

Anna: So I have a dress. It has a black top and blue skirt and some flowers on the bottom. It’s not too long… I have to dance in it. But I like that dress a lot. It’s very comfortable as well and that’s important.

If you had to pick the perfect prom theme, what would you pick?

Anna: I would want to do— I don’t know what I’d call it— but I really like the stars. And I think it would be really fun to have a lot of stars and have the lights out, maybe have glowsticks. That would be exciting. I think that sounds fun. There could be lots of black-light balloons. We could call it ‘A Night To Remember’ or something like that.

Are you part of the teen accepting ensemble or teen bullying ensemble?

Anna: Unfortunately the bullying ensemble. I mean by the very end I accept it? But I’m definitely a bully in the beginning.

Was your high school experience in general similar or different to what you’re experiencing here at The Prom?

Anna: I would say it was incredibly similar. Even in my student-teaching experiences, when I went out into high schools to teach— it was terrifying, seeing how kids were treating the LGBT+ students in their schools. It’s definitely still very relevant to things that are happening even today.

Why do you want people to come and see this production of The Prom?

Anna: It’s the area premiere. You get to see it here first. And everyone is just so talented! It’s like every time that we sit down for a music rehearsal and I hear the solo songs I get thrilled. It’s just so great. Everyone has been working so, so hard on the dances, and it’s just such a nice community of people. There’s a whole lot of heart and talent going into it.

If you had to sum up your experience with The Prom here at Tidewater Players in just one word, what word would you use?

Anna: Fantastic!

The Prom plays through March 6 2023 with Tidewater Players, in residence at the Cultural Center at The Havre de Grace Opera House— 121 N. Union Street in historic downtown Havre de Grace, MD. For tickets call the box office at 667-225-8433 or purchase them online.

To check out The Prom with Abigail and Aaron, click here!

To check out The Prom with Maggie and Zach, click here!

To check out The Prom with Tristin and Brigid, click here!