It’s that time of year again. Music in the halls, people dancing from class to class, scripts being passed from one hand to another, and strange objects on the stage. Musical season is upon us once again as the high school begins its largest annual student activity: the spring musical. This year’s production is Cole Porter’s Anything Goes.
Originally performed in 1934 on Broadway, Anything Goes has undergone several revisions, revivals, and adaptations. Throughout all the changes, though, the story’s main elements have remained the same. It is a captivating story of mistaken identities, romantic complications, and upbeat dance numbers.
The story mainly follows Billy Crocker (Nick Sembrat), a young stockbroker who works for Elisha Whitney (Jon Wang). Whitney is headed for London on the SS American. As Billy goes to tell his boss goodbye, he encounters Hope Harcourt (Jillian Vlah), a girl Billy has recently fallen in love with. Hope is accompanied by her overprotective mother Mrs. Evangeline Harcourt (Genny Tankosich) and her English fiancé Lord Evelyn Oakleigh (Dan Finkel/Luke Graci). Deciding to try to win Hope back, Billy stows away on the ship, much to the excitement of his good friend nightclub singer Reno Sweeney (Morgan Hogenmiller/Hannah Lane). Meanwhile two public enemies Moonface Martin (Ben Nadler) and Erma (Eliza Luxbacher) are also hiding on the ship. As the plot continues, several disguises are donned and secrets are revealed.
The annual spring musical encompasses a very large number of students and adults. This year’s production will be student directed by Emily Violi, who also student directed last year’s musical South Pacific. When asked to comment about her experiences with musical, Emily responded, “Well, musical is an incredible place to learn leadership skills. It’s really like a family so it’s really supportive. I really, really love it. I’ve done a lot of acting in the past, so learning how to direct gives me a new view on the stage and my knowledge from my previous acting experiences helps me with directing. But it’s all just an awesome experience.”
Several other students will join Emily on the production staff, all with similar leadership aspirations. This important group of people is in charge of creating a program, running rehearsals, being a general go-to, and ensuring the smooth running of the musical’s various components. About once a week, the student staff members meet in order to give updates on each individual area. Essentially the student staff is the core communication of the musical.
What is a musical without its music? Upper St. Clair is very fortunate to have its very own student pit orchestra perform all the music live during the musical.The heads of this year’s pit orchestra are Maura Boston and Shannon Gallagher. These seniors have both been members of the pit since 9th grade and are very excited to join everyone once again this year. Maura says she feels “honored” to be pit head this year as the spring musical “has and continues to be a fantastic experience” in her high school career.
The pit rehearses after school every Tuesday and Thursday for two hours. As opening night approaches, the pit will also begin rehearsing on Saturday mornings. Without these musicians’ high level of dedication, the musical would not be nearly the same.
According to Maura, the pit knows they have done a good job when the “audience members leave the show humming the show songs.”
Another major component of the annual production is the large make-up crew. They meet several times before opening night in order to learn how to apply stage make-up that will enable the actors to look their best while performing. Nicole Churbock, Sophie Hasco, and Jasma Mody are the student leaders of the make-up department this year. In the past the make-up crew has created beards and tattoos in addition to general make-up. Last year’s production even required the crew to design some marvelously rotten-looking teeth. Many of these crew members can also style hair for the cast members. These girls try very hard to make sure the cast looks their very best while on stage.
Stage crew is another important group in the musical experience. These students are responsible for creating, changing, and lighting the stage and its sets. Every year the stage crew spends numerous hours learning how to maneuver the confusing masses of cables and ropes that control the different set pieces. The stage crew also spends some very late nights during the final week before the show opens in order to make sure every small detail is perfect, so that the shows can run without a flaw.
There will be a whole lot of preparations occurring in these next few weeks. These many talented students and adults will each work on their own individual sections of the production. Each part is crucial to the success of the overall musical, without one the production would simply not be the same. However, as of right now, Anything Goes seems to be headed in the right direction to be all ready to open on March 1!