Spring Musical!!

The Spring Musical

Lauren Chiappetta

The spring musical, Beauty and the Beast, is February 16th through the 19th, but in the meantime, there is a lot a preparation that goes into musical. Preparations for the musical really started the day that the auditions ended.

Nancy Gibson, the drama director, plays a huge role in preparing for the musical, and Mrs. Steege, the choir director, is primarily focused on the signing aspects of the show. Not only do the teachers who work on the musical put in tons of work, but so do the students.

“In the musical aspect of it, we (the cast) are working on the songs with everyone in them whenever there is time,” said Elise Sparks. By the students working on their own outside of practice, more pertinent matters can be attended to during practice. There are three different types of practices for the participants; choreography, blocking, and singing rehearsal.

In choreography practice, students learn dances to go along with a certain line of a song or a specific word. By students memorizing the songs, it will help them to focus more on the moves than the words.

In blocking practice students learn where to stand in correlation with their lines in the script. This is important because while Beauty and the Beast is a musical a large chunk of it is talking and walking, not singing and dancing.

“Choreography practice usually takes place on Saturdays, and really shows how dedicated the cast is,” said Caitlin Robertson. Singing practice usually includes students learning the songs with Mrs. Steege and working on them so that they are absolutely perfect for the performance.

While working on the script and songs themselves are a lot of work, so are working on the costumes. Cast members pay a fee that goes towards making and fitting their costumes as needed. By students having costumes that fit their character the show can definitely go more into depth. Not only do costumes have to be constructed, but props and sets have to be made as well.

Of course all of this would not be possible without multiple departments involved. As per usual the Orchestra, Band, Choir, and Drama departments are all involved in some way with the musical.

Glowing Up In The World - Elise Sparks sporting her costume created for her enchantress character. Black lights were used to enhance the white glow of the dress and the audience. " The costume with the black lights adds a feeling of mysteriousness," said Elise.

Bonjour! - This is a fish cart prop used for the opening scene of the musical. "Props in a musical can make scenes more interesting.", said Caitlin Robertson.

This is fabric cart used for the opening scene that introduces the characters in the musical. "Props in a musical can make scenes more interesting," said Caitlin Robertson.