Kings Academy, June 1,  2010—An audience of parents, faculty, staff and students attended the much anticipated opening night of Noel Coward's Private Lives Sunday evening in the Safwan M. Masri Courtyard. The performance was sponsored by the Arab Media Center of Jordan.

"My goal was always to bring contemporary theater to Amman and what better place to do that than King's Academy," said Faculty Member and play Director Jana Zeinneddine. "This was a very difficult piece to perform because it is a comedy of manners piece and the humor is subtle and all in the comedic timing of the actors".

Headmaster Dr. Eric Widmer opened the evening with a prologue in French setting the scene. The story line follows the tumultuous relationship of Amanda (Hana Mufti '11) and Elyot (Faris Baytaneh '11), a divorced couple who meet again on their honeymoons with their respective new spouses-Victor (Jaber Al- Sabah '11) and Sybil (Caroline Kelsoe '13). Set in 1930s France, the three-act play took the audience from Deauville to Paris as the cast brilliantly performed the romantic comedy.

"This has been one of my best experiences at King's because it allowed me to come out of my comfort zone," said Kelsoe.

Segways from scene to scene were provided by an orchestra made up of violinist Dima AlHourani '12, guitarist Farris Naffa ‘13, and Faculty Members Christina Roytz and Reem Abu Rahmeh on cello and violin, respectively. Yara Rawashdeh '12 also joined in on the French theme playing Amanda's maid, while Robert Boumeester '11 served as the stage manager for the performance,

From the expressive arguments to the notable accents, it was clear that the students had put their all into ensuring that the authenticity and raw emotions of the characters came across to the audience. Kelsoe also wowed with her rendition of Frank Sinatra's "The Way you Look Tonight" in act one.

"Ms. Jana really did a great job giving us the push and confidence to perform even though we only had three weeks to prepare," said Al-Sabah.

A special showing of the play will be performed again for an audience of faculty, senior students and their parents on June 2 just after the First Annual Senior Dinner.

"This group was really a dream cast to work with and I think the second performance will really be great now that they have their footing from opening night," said Zeinneddine.