Thursday night, its curtains up at 7 at both Stevens and Central High Schools in Rapid City. One stage takes you to a bell tower of Notre Dame, the other to a small Alabama town during the 1930s. A few miles apart, two schools start their spring shows, both asking what it costs to push back against a world that decided you don’t belong.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Stevens High School
April 23–25 | 7 p.m. | $15
Stevens High School brings The Hunchback of Notre Dame this week, drawing from the Victor Hugo novel with the Alan Menken score, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and script by Peter Parnell. More than 100 students across cast, crew, and pit orchestra are involved in the production directed by Matthew Vidal. The story follows Quasimodo, kept hidden in Notre Dame’s bell tower by Dom Claude Frollo, whose control begins to fracture when Esmeralda arrives during a local festival.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Central High Theatre
April 23–25 | 7 p.m. | April 25 | 2 p.m. | $6
Central High Theatre presents Christopher Sergel’s stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird this week. Set in 1930s Alabama, the story follows Atticus Finch, a lawyer who agrees to defend a Black man falsely accused by a white family. It is a story about innocence, about prejudice, and about what it costs to do the right thing when the community around you has chosen otherwise. The production features original music by Zander Waddell and is directed by Justin Speck.
A Closing Chapter
To Kill a Mockingbird is the final production Justin Speck and Joey Lore will lead at Central High Theatre. Speck has served as Artistic Director for 22 years. Lore, the program’s Technical Director, has been his partner for the same stretch. Together they guided Central Theatre to 21 consecutive South Dakota State One-Act Championships, a record most believe will not be replicated. The program they built sent students to Broadway, to Shakespeare abroad, to the UK, Ireland, and this spring, on a final 10-day trip through Italy. What they leave behind is not just a trophy case. It is a generation of students who learned that showing up, being prepared, and leading with humility were skills that would follow them well past the stage.
Speck chose To Kill a Mockingbird for this final season deliberately. It was the first production Central staged in the new theater built during his tenure, and closing with it means the room gets to hold the same story twice, once at the beginning of something and once at the end. A story about moral courage and what it costs felt, in his words, like one it was time to tell again.
This weekend, Matthew Vidal is also directing his final show at Stevens High School. In the fall, he moves to Central to take over the program Speck and Lore spent 22 years building. Two directors, both in their last shows at their current schools, on stages a few miles apart, on the same three nights.
