The UA student production of “”Stop Kiss”” saw opening success last weekend.””Opening was fabulous,”” said Trish Everett, director of “”Stop Kiss”” and a theater education and outreach graduate student. “”Personally, it was very fulfilling to finally see the show, and see how an audience is reacting, to discover what was actually making sense to people and what wasn’t. There’s always that opening show night drama, but the actors got through it, so that was very exciting.””

Everett believes that all of the actors performed their roles well.

“”I’m very proud of all the actors,”” she said. “”I think Engel has surprised himself in what he’s able to do. I think before the show opened he was really nervous about whether or not he was actually going to be able to pull it off, and he did, and he’s been doing a beautiful job for his very first show.””

Everett enjoyed seeing the audience become acquainted with the main characters.

“”Danielle and Sarah have both been really warmly received by audiences,”” she said. “”People just love these characters, and that’s been really fun to see. I know Callie and Sara intimately at this point in my relationship with them. To have the audience meeting these girls now has been really nice, and I think the audience enjoyed that a lot.””

She also believes that the actors in smaller roles performed beautifully.

“”I think they’ve been exploring what it means to be an actor in a smaller role,”” she said. “”It’s more difficult because it means you have to do a lot more work to figure out who their character is, but they’ve all done a really good job.””

If Everett had to change one aspect of “”Stop Kiss,”” she would want it to be performed more.

“”I think I would like to have a longer run,”” she said. “”I mean that’s not really something that I have any control over, but only having four performances when we’ve worked three to four hours a night, five nights a week, six weeks. It feels a little anticlimactic to have a beginning and an ending in the same weekend.””

Overall, Everett believes that “”Stop Kiss”” was a great experience.

“”It’s been a fabulous experience,”” she said. “”This is a very different style of theater than I have directed before, both because it doesn’t follow a natural chronological order and it’s a serious drama, but it’s also a comedy. It’s been both a challenge and a great adventure. I’ve been really happy with the whole process.””

Now that “”Stop Kiss”” has finished, Everett will move on in her education.

“”Theatrically, I’m going to start my thesis. I’m going to be directing high school kids in avant-garde experimental theater, so that’s going to be a completely different world from what ‘Stop Kiss’ was.””