She will be taking her last bow soon.

Senior Kelly Muehling thinks about this as she runs the eyeliner across her face. She repeats this over and over again until thick stripes are painted across her cheek.

With fur on her face, whiskers painted on, and a tail hanging loosely behind her, she pushes the thoughts of the final bow out of her head.
It’s time to rehearse.

Muehling is currently involved in the production of Cats with her theater group held at the St. Charles Community College, which she has been involved with for the past six years. Of all the many different productions she has put on, ‘Cats’, she believes, is the hardest.

“Anybody doing an amateur Andrew Lloyd Weber play is pretty risqué,” Muehling said. “This is really going to show our strengths and weaknesses.”
‘Cats’, one of the longest running musicals on Broadway requires actors to be able to act, dance and sing.

“There is no training here,” Muehling said. “I couldn’t sing or dance, but I ended up getting parts that required me to have solos. Doing ‘Cats’ is like a final test for me.”

For most people who view the show, Cats is seemed as strange; almost pointless. For others, it is seen as art.

“It’s a pretty fun show to do,” Muehling said. “I mean it is kind of weird. It’s about cats. But overall it’s still a good show.”

Muehling rehearses every Monday and Thursday for three hours, and on Saturdays for nine hours, taking breaks for lunch and a bit of down time.

“It does get hard,” Muehling said. “The rehearsals are long and there are a lot of kids.”

As this will be Muehling’s last show, she hopes that she can leave the theater group that she has worked with for so many years on a high note.

“Being in a show like this is crazy,” Muehling said. “I’m dressing up as a cat and singing. But it’s all worth it. I know that all my past experience will lead me up to what I’m going to do, and that is to put on a great show.”