Lights, camera … murder? Who could have done it? For the cast of “Curtains” at Miami Palmetto Senior High, that is the question that they have answered during their four nights of shows. This is the show of the year for the drama department, so they have worked to make it the best show possible.

“It’s basically a show within a show. It’s set in the 1960s and it’s a murder mystery. [The cast is] performing their opening night of the show called Robbin’ Hood. Opening night, someone gets murdered, so then they’re all forced to be quarantined in the theater, and they’re stuck there until they find out who the murderer is,” thespian and senior Olivia Greenwald said. 

Preparations for the show have been going on since December, and the cast was very excited to show off their hard work to the school. Each cast member had a serious commitment to the show, as they were staying after school until 3:30 p.m. every day, and sometimes later into the night.

“I like that we have a really big cast this year. I think it’s also a lot more fun when there’s more people,” Greenwald said. “It makes it a little more stressful, but every rehearsal is always interesting because there’s always so much going on.”

Something new about this year’s show was auditions being available to the whole school, not just theater students. This allowed for a broader range of possible actors and made for a bigger, more unique cast. One student, senior Matthew Vazquez, was someone outside of the drama program who decided to audition for “Curtains.”

“One of my friends, Sofia Arnau, the stage manager, really pushed me to do it because we had sung once in class. She just encouraged me to do it, and I didn’t really consider it at all before that,” Vazquez said. “It took weeks for her to get me to actually want to do it, but once I did, it was a lot of fun.”

Having a bigger cast than usual was necessary for the show to go on, as the drama department did not have enough male actors to fill all the roles. However, those who did join for the first time felt as if they got something out of the experience.

“I’ve learned more to work with people, especially working on musical numbers, dancing and singing, and trying to work in harmony with other people, and like coming up with solutions,” Vazquez said. “Also, during the actual show, there’s problems that constantly come up, and you can’t really anticipate them, but you always need to be prepared for them. So I think it’s made me more adaptable.”

Each show went off without a hitch, but on closing night, seniors took in the reality of their last show. Luckily, they are not done quite yet with the high school stage.

“We will have what we call Cafe 1298 in the spring, where we do kind of a coffee shop/open house/open performance night in my room, and then my students are also preparing for Final Act, which is a show that is a tribute to all of our seniors. The seniors perform, and each class does tributes for them, and it’s their culminating performance on our stage,” drama teacher Robin Barson said.

Behind the scenes, the tech and stagecraft crews worked hard every day to create sets and fix lighting and sound, and the show would not go on without them.

“We’re all student-run,” junior and crew member Lilah Suarez said. “We get to the school at 4:30 p.m. to help with makeup and set up the mics. Everyone in tech knows the basics of each section, so everyone backstage helps with mics too.” 

Beyond the “techie” students, adults from outside the school volunteered their time every day to help the show go on. Their work did not go unnoticed, as Barson gave a tribute to every parent and volunteer who built sets, sewed costumes and helped with choreography on closing night.

“They are so helpful,” Suarez said. “They leave their own jobs to help us out, and I’m in stagecraft, so if they didn’t sew [the costumes] I would have to.”

Every cast member, director and crew member is a pivotal part of creating any show, and “Curtains” is no exception. However, even when they are not preparing for a show, the drama department never sleeps and is always preparing for their next competition or showcase.