By Teresa Lopez.
The lights flicker on and the curtains swish open as the sound of the heavy feet scatter on stage. Mr. Martin and the rest of the theater crew start their daily warmups for upcoming play ‘The Music Man’.
‘The Music Man’ written by Meredith Willlson and Franklin Lacey, will be shown today and tomorrow at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 2 and 7 p.m. in the auditorium. Tickets will be sold at the door for $10. This show is the first musical theater teacher Kyle Martin featured in as a kid, and now his students get to perform it with their own twist.
“It is fun, funny, just a good time and just a feel-good musical,” Martin said. “I want people to have this feeling of the classic American small town in the early 20th century.”
The overall vision for Mr. Martin and the theater crew to bring this musical to life was with singing and student-led choreography.
“I think right now in our culture it’s good to have optimism, it’s good to have things to aspire to and good to remember the goodness of people.” Martin said.
Each of the theater students have different personalities and backgrounds but come together to make them amplify each other while performing.
“My character’s name is Marcellus Washburn,” senior Jackson Riley said. “He’s a little like the town idiot. He’a a pretty interesting guy and I think he’s just a fun, easy character to have a good time with.”
Theater has practice after school every day till 6 p.m. since October and are ready to perform this week.
“In the show I’m Marian Paroo, the librarian, and I really love her character.” senior Hope Arrazola said. “I love singing her songs, and that’s my favorite thing about it. I love rehearsals, it’s a lot of fun, seeing everyone and getting to practice to put on the best show we can.”
Senior theater president Barrett Roberson will play the main character, Harold Hill, and is enjoying the time performing so far.
“I had always seen shows and a bunch of my friends were in it, so it just looked like a bunch of fun and it is,” Roberson said. “Rehearsals are a bunch of fun. We get a bunch of hard work done and it’s really fun work.”
