There was not a dry eye to be seen as the cast of Diana Son’s “Stop Kiss” took their final bow opening night on April 27.
Across the two and a half hour show, the crowd got to see the charming personalities of two best friends. Callie, played by Michaelina Gonzales, and Sara, played by Trissa Alimeke.
Alongside the quaint scenes of sharing glasses of wine and having sleepovers, tragedy struck as a man assaulted the two leads while sharing their first kiss, leading to Sara being put into a coma.
Seeing the two storylines put together in a nonlinear structure forced the actresses to be quick on their feet. They were expected to act in a scene that was happy and loving, then quickly transition to a horrific and tragic scene.
“I’ve never played a lesbian role before,” began Gonzales, “it taught me to feel comfortable with who I am, and don’t let anyone get in the way of that.”
All the more impressive was Alimeke who, while having done theater prior to “Stop Kiss,” was in her first lead role for this production.
“I’m used to having one scene,” Alimeke said. To get rid of nerves, Alimeke would often listen to music from rapper 21 Savage or singer Beyonce to get her hyped and ready for her performance.
The lead actresses weren’t the only ones proud of what happened on stage. Director of “Stop Kiss” Laurie Guajardo could barely contain her excitement.
“It was great, the acting was on point, my actors are stellar, lights, costumes everything was great,” gushed Guajardo.
Like any live show, not everything was as perfect behind the scenes as people in the audience would believe last-minute changes were made on opening night.
“We started practicing with curtains which we didn’t have last night,” Stage Manager Luis Aguilar said.
“We started with actual beverages, and some cues went differently.”
These changes did not worry Guajardo, but she was not deterred and was confident that the show would stand strong with or without the changes.
“The show is strong enough to stand on its own, so I wasn’t too worried about it,” Guajardo said.