By: Estrella McDaniel
Next School Year’s Fall Play and Musical are already being prepped and organized. Next Year’s Fall Play is “Up the Down Staircase” while the Musical is going to be “The Wizard of Oz.” Next Year’s Musical is very popular and has been a play, musical, and in books all of which are very different with details. The Fall Play and Musical is what reflects the beauty and excitement of putting together a show and seeing how it turns out in the end.
Stacy Galvan is the Drama and Stagecraft Teacher, she has been working hard to make sure these shows are as spectacular as the originals. Galvan’s main inspiration for the Fall Play was the number of parts the scene has and also something different for the actors to “broaden their horizons.” Over the years the Fall Plays have been serious and more dramatic, where this upcoming school year’s Fall Play goes over what is still happening now by connecting to our school and is more of a comedy.
The Wizard of Oz was more of a favorite and the fact that there is going to be upcoming sophomores, juniors, and seniors that can play these parts and are just really great actors makes this show more possible to do. Galvan has started prepping for these shows by going over music and costumes for the showcase and by just keeping her eyes open to what is ahead. The challenge for this Musical for the actors will be characterization and whether the actor will choose to portray their character in their own way or how it is portrayed in the musical or in the play. The Wizard of Oz is “extremely hard technically because there is flying involved and then there is contrasting the scenes from being black and white to later on being a beautiful colorful world that has never been seen before,” as Galvan goes on to tell us.
Aidan Nankervis, ‘20, says he is very excited about both plays and can’t wait to audition for them. In order to start preparing for this Musical, he is going to study the audition material. Then once the audition is over and he has gotten his part he will go over that character to see what drives them. Depending on what role he was to get than that would reflect on how challenging the acting is. Nankervis believes that this Musical will be a better fit with him because in Once Upon a Mattress you had to be on top of things and it was a boom, boom, boom whereas The Wizard of Oz isn’t like that.
Kendrick Taylor 21′ says that she is very excited about the Musical because she loves it a lot and so does her grandma who really wants her to get the part of Dorothy. Some plans for her on prepping for this Musical is by going over the music again and by going over all of the characters so she’s not just set on one specific character and so she can keep her options open. Taylor thinks this Musical will be difficult “because not a lot of high schoolers necessarily fit the roles, for example, the munchkins.” Another thing is because of the fact that Emerald City is such a flamboyant thing it is going to definitely challenge them energy wise and stamina wise, and it will be an upbeat gotta keep moving kind of show. She does feel as though this Musical will be a better fit for her because she knows more about it and she thinks it will be good to see what she can bring to the table using her previous knowledge about the show.
Redwood is a place where students can express themselves in every single way possible and for a lot of students, it’s through singing and acting. About a quarter of students that go to Redwood are interested in the arts and want to let that be acknowledged by either joining drama or choir or dance force. Next school year’s Fall Play and Musical are both seen to be very close to Redwood whether it is a connection or because it is popular. The students of Redwood know their voices can be seen and heard through the arts of Drama.