Lake Park theater to stage 'The Hundred Dresses'

  • Freshman Daisy Rimer, center, plays Wanda Petronski, a second grader who gets teased at school in the children's play "The Hundred Dresses." Also pictured are Alex Morales, playing her father, Jan Petronski, and Aashna Bhatt, playing her teacher, Miss Mason.

    Freshman Daisy Rimer, center, plays Wanda Petronski, a second grader who gets teased at school in the children's play "The Hundred Dresses." Also pictured are Alex Morales, playing her father, Jan Petronski, and Aashna Bhatt, playing her teacher, Miss Mason. Courtesy of Lake Park High School

 
By Sherri L. Anderson
Lake Park High School District 108
 
 
Updated 9/12/2022 10:30 AM

The Lake Park Theatre Department kicks off its 2022-23 season with the children's play "The Hundred Dresses" on Wednesday, Sept. 14.

It will be presented at 7 p.m. in the East Campus Dice Auditorium, 600 Medinah Road, Roselle. Admission is free; running time is 40 minutes.

 

Based on the 1945 Newbery Honor book by Eleanor Estes, the play explores the bonds of friendship, the willingness to be yourself and the courage it takes to stand up to others --- even when you're standing alone.

Wanda Petronski (freshman Daisy Rimer), a second grader, lives way up in a shabby house in Boggins Heights, and she doesn't have any friends.

Every day she wears a faded blue dress, which wouldn't be too much of a problem if she didn't tell her classmates that she had a hundred dresses at home -- all silk, all colors, velvet too.

The children at Franklin Elementary School don't know what to make of this new girl.

Soon Maddie (junior Eden Strahan), Peggy (junior Gia Zatos), Jack (junior Elias O'Neill) and their classmates make a game of teasing Wanda about her hundred dresses, until one day she disappears from school, leaving just an empty seat where she once sat.

As feelings of guilt overtake the children, Maddie and the other students decide they must find out what happened to Wanda and make amends for the way they treated her.

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This play handles topics such as bullying, friendship, and forgiveness.

The cast and crew will prepare for the evening show with three additional performances for area sender schools on Tuesday and Wednesday.

To learn more about Lake Park High School's theater department, visit drama.lphs.org.

Students in Miss Mason's class at Franklin Elementary School.
Students in Miss Mason's class at Franklin Elementary School. - Courtesy of Lake Park High School

The next production will be American playwright William Inge's "Bus Stop" at 7 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, Oct. 6-8. It will be followed by William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer's Night Dream" at 7 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, Nov. 10-12, and the Patrick Cook comedy "A Good Old-Fashioned Big Family Christmas" at 7 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, Dec. 8 and 10, and 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9.

The season ends with "Drowsy Chaperone" April 20-23, 2023.

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