This year, the Pretender’s Club put on the skit “The Customer Is Always Wrong”. It was a short, comedic skit and was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience.
“I thought the play was really fun, it was creative with good acting. Overall, a very good play,” Olivia Taffe (‘26) complimented.
“We’ve been working on this for a while. It has a lot of great jokes and bits that I am excited to run. It feels serious enough to make its message stick but silly enough that people do not feel bad for laughing,” Dawood Qadeer (‘24) said.
Qadeer (‘24) is one of three directors for the play. The other two were Chase Rothaas (‘24) and Chetan Thomas (‘24). But Qadeer had to step up into the main director role because the other two fell ill.
There were even a few new people featured in this play. One of the newer actors was Chloe Golladay (‘24), she is a new student at Barstow.
“It was my first performance, I had done other things but people had always been there alongside with me. It felt amazing after the performance, I was so glad I did not mess up,” Golladay said.
There were many problems the club ran into, such as being a smaller group, could not create a complex set, and a fair amount of people getting sick. Their rehearsals certainly had some struggles, to say the least. However, despite these setbacks, the play continued, and the audience could hardly tell of any problems.
“At the very start of the show, there were some problems getting people in person because that was around the time everyone was getting sick. At one point, we had half of the cast on zoom. We only recently were able to get everyone at rehearsals,” Qadeer commented.
On top of rehearsal attendance issues, the set created some problems for the club, but it was well done when it was time for the opening night. Each piece fits the scene nicely. Along with the perfect props, the small cast fit the play perfectly. There were just enough actors to have there be background characters to add depth to the scenes.
“What surprised me the most about the play was the set ‘cause they had no budget. They did very well with what they were given,” Taffe said.
The leads in the play were Miles McEachen (‘25), Mylie Cadwalader (‘25), Chloe Golladay (‘24), and Sanjeev Adma (‘26). They each played a certain job such as waiter, mascot, nanny, and cinema worker. The play followed each character as they struggled with their jobs due to unruly customers, hence the name “The Customer Is Always Wrong”. But it concluded with a happy ending as each character found their true calling.
“I liked the end scene. It was very wholesome when they recognized their true passion and look forward to the future,” Taffe (‘26) praised.
Even though it was not an official Barstow production, the play attracted a large audience. It was amazing to see fellow Barstow students come in and cheer on their peers. Sadly, the play had only one performance night, but it was certainly a good one.
Based on this performance, the Pretender’s Club’s next play will be spectacular.
