A core group of Saratoga High's actors will soon be graduating, and many are getting a little nostalgic as the last mainstage production of their high school drama careers, the musical Oklahoma, gets close to curtain call.

Kathleen Woods, the school's drama director, is also getting sad as she thinks about the talented students her department will soon be losing to graduation. Many of the actors have been involved in every production the school has put on since they first arrived at Saratoga as freshmen.

"It's so hard," she says. "It's like losing family members. We're together for four years, and then all of a sudden they're gone. It's very hard. But they often come back to visit."

As the group gets ready to open its spring musical, many of the seniors agree that it is a great show to end it all with.

"It's a really good note to end on," says Chip Kraemer, a graduating senior who is playing the character Curly in the show. "It's fun, old, everyone knows it."

Chip adds that it is a welcome experience to do a show with so much history to it, as Oklahoma takes place at the turn of the 20th century. He says with many of the shows Saratoga does, the group members have a good amount of artistic license to mold the show with their own ideas. But with such a beloved, traditional show as Oklahoma, the actors welcome sticking to what is historical and accurate.

Chip says he plans to pursue musical theater when he starts college in the fall, and he is considering either Hofstra University near Manhattan or Emerson University in Boston.

Beth Guido, another senior, says she is also sad to think about how this will be her last musical at Saratoga.

"It's kind of bittersweet; I've been in the musical all four years," she says. "It's been a great experience. Some people in the cast I've known for four years; some I'm just meeting."

Beth will also pursue theater in college and is considering Chapman University in Orange County.

Senior Jon Friedman, who has been accepted into the acting program at American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Los Angeles for the fall, says it will be both sad and strange to leave the theater where he has become so accustomed to spending his time.

"It's really weird to think of this as being my last mainstage show. I've been in the musicals all four years as well; I basically live in this theater," he says. "When somebody brings up the fact that this is our last show, I keep thinking back to when we seniors were freshmen and we all thought we were invincible."

Choreographer Dottie Lester-White says she has known a few of the graduating seniors since they were in the drama program at Redwood Middle School. She says she is proud of how the students have grown within their crafts over the years.

"I've seen these kids grow up and improve, and I've been able to give them harder things each time, to match their skills. It's been really fun," she says.

No matter how sad they get when they think about it, the entire cast and crew seems to be having fun with Oklahoma, and Woods says she is confident that enthusiasm will come through in their upcoming performances.

"It's really fun," says Woods. She says the musical numbers will be fun for the audience to watch as well.

"There are group numbers, duets, solos ... and everyone will recognize the music," she says.

Woods says the audience should also enjoy the familiar storyline.

"It's about Americans in Oklahoma right before Oklahoma became a state. So it's about being on the verge of everything--love, statehood, the future, everything," she says. It seems a fitting premise as the students find themselves on the verge of graduation and the rest of their lives.

Saratoga High School's production of "Oklahoma" will run for one week only. Performances are April 7 at 7 p.m., April 8 at 7:30 p.m. and April 9 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Reserved seat tickets can be purchased in the activities office weekdays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call the office at 408.867.3411, ext. 203.