Rainier High School Drama Club returns with ‘The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon’

It’s all “one long mega-juicy story.”

That’s Adam Cornwall, director of the Rainier High School Drama Club, paraphrasing a line from “The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon,” the club’s first performance since 2019.

The first round of shows was held May 9 and May 10. The final round of performances will be held Friday, May 16, and Saturday, May 17, both at 7 p.m. Tickets are $7.

Written by Don Zolidis, the “Spectaculathon” is a comedic reimagining of the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tales — all 209 of them.

The idea behind the play, according to Cornwall, is that a troupe of actors are attempting to include every single Brothers Grimm fairy tale in one show, from Rapunzel to Hansel and Gretel to Rumpelstiltskin.

“But it’s a comedy and people get confused all over the place and they’re like, ‘Are we doing this one or are we doing this one?’” Cornwall said. “Or, you know, ‘This story seems a little bit antiquated.’ And so, there’s a lot of things in there (where) it’s people just trying to do the shows as fast as they can.”

Cornwall, who has been at Rainier since 2007, teaches middle school and high school band and also serves as the advisor for the robotics club. He started doing drama about 10 years ago, but said he took a break from shows after 2019, “partly because my wife took over helping out a lot with Yelm High School’s music stuff, and my kids wanted to see at least one of the parents.”

That said, he’s glad to bring the shows back to Rainier in 2025.

“I think what I like most about doing drama and working with the kids is that these are kids that I don’t see anywhere else,” Cornwall said.

Cornwall thinks the performances allow students to show another side to their personalities — sometimes to the surprise of their teachers.

“Other teachers that have talked to me, they’re like, ‘That person’s auditioned? They don’t say a word in my class,’” Cornwall said. “But they get on the stage and I love seeing (it) because it’s a different place for them to shine. And you get a lot of people that may be shy in the classroom, but when you put them on stage, it is so much fun to watch them just blossom and really be confident in who they are.”

Senior Mikkie Shaw, who plays Narrator 1, Enchantress, and Prince 3, said she was drawn to the humor in the “The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon.”

“I love the jokes in it,” Shaw said. “It’s funny to me.”

Fellow senior April Anguiano, who plays Narrator 2, agrees.

“I just like playing that character a lot,” Anguiano said. “Very chaotic. That’s how I feel like he is.”

“There’s a contrast between the two narrators,” Cornwall said. While Shaw is trying to keep everything going, Anguiano “wants to be the showman” and “sell the show.”

“My favorite part is where I get to slap Mikkie,” Anguiano said jokingly.
“Mikkie is having a meltdown,” Cornwall said. “She’s trying to bring her back to reality.”

Cornwall said one of the reasons he chose this play was because it allowed flexibility in terms of cast size.

“This play is designed to be done with five to 43 people,” Cornwall said. “It’s meant to be funny, where costumes — if you have five people — all the costumes are just supposed to be all on stage and they’re just switching costumes really quick on stage.”

The fact-paced nature of the show is only heightened by the limited number of performers. In Rainier’s rendition, there are 17 actors on stage, along with eight crewmembers.

Even so, Cornwall said he’s never had so many people come out to audition.

“I had 34 people show up for auditions,” Cornwall said. “And about half of them were like, ‘I don’t want to be on stage. I just want to be helping.’ They want to be designing set or whatever else it was. And so, this is the biggest cast I’ve ever had for a show here.”

The show has let people who may be interested in theater, but not necessarily acting, learn valuable skills.

“I have two people that have been learning lights,” Cornwall said. “I have my stage manager, (Jaycee Keeney), who has been awesome and taken a lot of burden that comes from putting a show on. She’s done that and really helped an incredible amount with that. I have one who’s been learning about how to build some of the set stuff and we’ve been doing that. Most people wanted to help paint anyway, so it was kind of whoever wanted to help paint showed up and painted.”

Both Anguiano and Shaw said they’re interested in pursuing acting in the future.

“I would definitely go on with it if there was some in college,” Shaw said. “I like doing it. I think it’s fun.”

“That’s why I took this chance,” Anguiano said of auditioning for the play.
“I think all of our actors have done a really good job on trying to get their lines together,” Shaw added. “Like, the last few days of our practice performances, they’ve done a really good job.”

The students are already thinking about next year. Cornwall said they’re begging for a musical.

“So we’ll see,” Cornwall said.

Until then, catch the Rainier High School Drama Club perform “The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon” at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 16, and Saturday, May 17, in the Commons at Rainier High School.