The West Prairie Press

By Maddie Whitlock

The West Prairie Drama Club will perform Avoiding the Pitfalls of High School Dating on Feb. 20 and 21. Dinner will be served during the performance, with the meal prepared by school food director Mandy Palmer. The dinner will include salad, pasta, garlic bread and dessert. Ticket information will be available soon.

Rehearsals are already underway (started the second week of January), but the play will be staged Feb. 20-21 at 6:30 p.m. in the junior/senior high school cafeteria. The performance will be a ticketed event, with limited seating each night. Additional information on pricing and ticketing to be announced soon.

High school is a time of awkwardness and self-discovery, filled with both the thrill and terror of early relationships. Avoiding the Pitfalls of High School Dating captures the roller coaster of teenage romance through humor and heart.

The one-act comedy is structured as a mock seminar led by two self-proclaimed dating “experts” who present a set of “never-fail” rules for relationship success. Their system is put to the test as two unlikely students demonstrate the rules through a series of awkward and often humiliating speed dates.

“The play is mainly for anyone who remembers their high school years or for anyone currently navigating high school,” said senior Hailie Hendrix, who has been involved in drama club all four years of high school.

The production takes a lighthearted but honest look at the challenges of relationships and the pressures that often come with them. It does not sugarcoat the realities of dating, as characters stumble through first dates and navigate breakups that ultimately teach valuable lessons.

“Avoiding the Pitfalls of High School Dating is more than just something to make you laugh,” Hendrix said. “It offers important insights into boundaries, healthy relationships and self-respect.”

The dinner theater production is spearheaded by drama club co-sponsors and English teachers Meredith Gravina and Connor Sullivan.

The play is designed to leave audiences laughing, thinking and feeling a sense of nostalgia for their own high school experiences.