FRISCO, TX – Every year, Frisco Independent School District displays its students’ diverse talents through multiple opportunities, competitions, clubs, and fine arts programs. One type of program is FISD’s theater program, which works hard to host a variety of shows and celebrate their hard work and talent. October through January is a popular time for theater shows for the school district since these months contain many holidays celebrated by the students and residents of Frisco.

Titan Theatre at Centennial High School has its 2023-2024 season planned out this year. Their first show is “Twisted Tales of Terror” from Oct. 19-21. This show will entertain the audience through silly retellings of horror stories characteristic of the spooky season and its classics.                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Theater typically produces shows around the same time every year. However, they are doing one show in October and an additional show in early November. The theater programs will host these shows at Centennial High School to an audience of students and adults. All shows, excluding preview night, are open to the general public. The director team does its best to set the scene through costumes, lighting, set design, and more.  “[The audience can expect] a fun, family-friendly show with lots of big characters, funny moments, and an amazing dance number at the end of the show,” says Assistant Director Mark “MJ” Hengstenberg. 

In addition to the production standpoint, there is also the actors’ and technical crew’s part to consider when making the show go on. 

“For the Oct. 19 show, [..the actors have..] been rehearsing since August, and since then […they]’ve done extensive work on exploring what motivates your character and how to add that on stage,” says Actor Caden Clack. “The tech has spent weeks building the set and designing the costumes.”

In addition, Hengstenberg elaborates, “[t]he process has been very interesting because of how this show is set up. It’s less of us working together all at the same time and more of small groups. It’s a lot of organizational stuff because you have to be aware of not only the actors but the technical aspects.”

Not only is this show an experience for the audience, but it is also a new experience for the production team. This is because there has been more focus on the technical aspect, but the director carries the strings from above to hold everything together. For Hengstenberg, it has been a different experience being more behind the scenes compared to last year. 

“It’s been very interesting working with the different levels of actors in the show. I have some experience designing sets and costumes and [helping with stage] makeup. It’s been a different experience being a bit more removed from the process,” he says. “Our technical director, Ms. Garrett, has been doing a lot of great work to get our costumes done and get the set filled. We’re doing […many] good things with lighting: backlighting, shadowplay, shadow lighting, and unconventional color schemes.”

Hengstenberg believes that Titan Theatre will put its best foot forward when the curtain opens. “We have two weeks until the show. I feel confident, but like any piece of art, it’s not going to be perfect.”  

Overall, there will always be some small things that could be done differently, but that is the nature of art. Art is meant to be a masterpiece, but (at the end of the day) the true beauty of art is that it will be performed, set on a wall, or listened to in its entirety- imperfections and all.