At the beginning of the year, Palestine High School ordered a new curtain. The curtain came from Golterman & Sobo, an Architectural Products company in St. Louis, Missouri and took several months to arrive. 

On the Thursday before Drama Club’s Friday night performance, the curtain had still not arrived, and all the actors were on edge, wondering if they were going to have to perform with no curtain.  Thankfully, the installation crew arrived midmorning, and by Thursday afternoon, November 29, one day before Drama Club’s fall production, “Acting Can Be Murder,” the new curtain was in place.  

The old curtain had been in place for many years.  In fact, when Mrs. Hyde, the current Drama Club sponsor, arrived six years ago, the curtain had already been taken down and place in storage above the stage. Because the stage was used as a band classroom for several years, a folding barrier had been installed to replace it.  While the barrier worked well as a classroom wall, it was difficult to open and close, so it was not practical to use for any Drama Club productions. While Drama Club students that first year were exploring the storage area, they found the old curtain, and managed to hang it and use it over the past six years.  Having the old curtain hanging added a certain element of suspense to every performance as students never knew whether the curtain would work or not!

Drama Club members cut the old curtain into pieces to share with current and former students.  The old valence, with its iconic “P” and white fringe, is still in a box in the Drama Club prop room.  Mrs. Hyde is currently dreaming up a way to use the valence in her room.