Playing Uno in the green room while waiting for the next scene is a tradition for senior Jordan O’Brien.
As is getting a much-needed pre-show dinner with her friends at Torchy’s Tacos or Panda Express.
Or sprinting back and forth backstage to make sure a scene doesn’t go on without her.
The fond memories O’Brien has of these traditions can all be traced back to second grade, when she decided to join Stage Right — a private theater company in Kansas City that has brought her a community.
“[Stage Right has] always been a really welcoming place,” O’Brien said. “Everybody’s always super nice. And I feel like it’s always been [Donna West] who runs the program, so I’ve grown up with her a little bit.”
Founder Donna West says Stage Right started as a program for students whose schools didn’t have a strong theater program, but since being founded in 2010, it’s become more than a creative outlet for students. It’s a place notorious for the friendships students make within the program and the life skills it instills in students.
West considers herself a second mom to many of her students and though her rehearsals are full of singing and dancing, that doesn’t accurately describe exactly what she teaches during that time. Whether that be through encouragement, teaching them invaluable life skills — like self-love and encouraging one another — or taking their problems personally.
“It’s like watching my own children grow and leave the nest,” West said. “I really overstep. I parent a lot. I help them make life decisions.”
West often finds herself sitting in her car after the two-hour rehearsal at 9 p.m., waiting. Waiting for her students to leave to ensure they get to their cars safely, but they won’t stop talking to one another.
“They all drive at 9 o’clock when the rehearsal is supposed to be over,” West said. “I’m still sitting in the parking lot at 9:30 telling them to go home, because they won’t leave each other.”
It’s during moments like these that she watches seniors from the class of 2026 create a community that she hasn’t seen to the same degree in the past.
Senior Caroline Reda can attest to this.
Thirteen years of working with Stageright, more than a few horror stories on stage and many friendships later, Reda can’t believe her time with the community Stage Right has brought her is almost gone.
Soon she won’t see her friends every Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. Friends that she’s known since she fell midsong while playing Elsa during COVID. Since she had to take three rounds of steroids due to a case of laryngitis. Since she had to help create a makeshift stand because a microphone broke right before a show.
“I’ll miss performing will all these people that I’ve been performing with for the longest time ever,” Reda said. “There’s some people in the program that I’ve known for [so long].”
Without the program, Reda and O’Brien wouldn’t have lifelong memories from their school photoshoot, organizing senior assassins at the end of year or playing Romans and Christians during their countless lock-ins.
West, too, has noticed the impact of Stage Right on her students’ high school experiences and the tight-knit community it has brought them.
“There are friend groups that developed in the senior class that are tighter than I’ve ever seen friend groups, and they come from all different schools,” West said. “They would have never met each other if it hadn’t been for this.”
However, memories aren’t the only thing Stage Right has given students. One of the program’s biggest benefits is the life skills it instills in students that will help later in life because according to O’Brien there is a lot to a musical that most people don’t understand.
Performing isn’t just singing and dancing, and it’s not just following instructions. According to Reda, you can’t just read off a script. Putting on a show requires the students to work together to figure out blocking, advocate for themselves, and problem solve to come up with a show that will look the best and sell the most tickets.
And it’s all for the feeling of opening night. When the curtain opens and students see the audience for the first time. In front of friends, family and strangers, the show they’ve been working on for four weeks goes live.
This is what Reda will miss most. That feeling in front of the audience, performing a show practiced so much it’s second nature and most importantly, having her friends bowing next to her at curtain call.
“I met [O’Brien] through Stage Right, not through school,” Reda said. “I’ve been performing with these people for so long, it’s just really sad to not be able to see them soon.”
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