The tidal wave of overlapping voices comes over you as the doors to the theater doors open. You see freshmen rehearsing their lines, sophomores practicing their vocal riffs, and juniors napping on the cold floor; it was time for auditions in the spring production.
Plays like You Can’t Take It With You and The Robber Bridegroom shine a light on the productions Paola High School puts on every year. The extravagant costumes and props all in the time crunch given by schedule conflicts: all things the Drama Club deals with time and time again.
The news that they would be taking on Shrek: The Musical for their spring production presented a new thing entirely. Auditions appeared as an obstacle early on for many.
With only 54 people who auditioned or applied for crew, some stretches needed to happen in order to fit the overall cast of about 83 roles for the play.
Honor Gaughan, freshman, became a part of the Hair and Makeup Crew, but also joined the Run Crew and Costume Crew.
“There’s not enough people to be on the cast or crew,” said Gaughan. “Multiple people are doing multiple things.”
According to Gaughan, she enjoys extra jobs, although it took some serious prioritizing on show nights.
“There might not be enough people for costume changes,” Gaughan said. “We’ll definitely have to have other people helping out.”
Along with the lack of students available for crew positions, another obstacle arose for the cast. When talking during rehearsals became a recurring issue, especially with those new to the theater, many worried that it would impact the show.
Max Markovich, senior, plays one of the Three Little Pigs and their view displays more optimism. Once rehearsals got more serious, they could tell that the ones new to rehearsals held promise.
Markovich said that, “it was rough with the middle schoolers and any new high schoolers getting used to the rehearsal process, specifically with run-throughs, but they got it eventually.”
The cast and crew weren’t the only obstacle either. With Shrek being a musical, the music itself brought obstacles onto the performance.
“The main obstacle is people’s ability to dance the choreography,” Markovich said.
Markovich said that many people on the cast couldn’t get the dances memorized. They became worried that some people wouldn’t get the dances down before the show.
Fortunately, Markovich said the cast slowly got past this roadblock in time for the end of rehearsals.
“It has definitely been quite the process learning to work together,” Markovich said. We have to be patient with each other so everyone can get the choreo down and put on the best show possible.”
As time went on, the cast and crew were getting their act together just in time for the show opening on March 27th.
“I can tell it is going to be super super fun,” Markovich said. “I think we’ll all enjoy it and the audience will have a good time.”