By Vivian Dyer.
Theater began rehearsing their 2024 fall Musical entitled, “Bright Star” at the beginning of September.
“‘Bright Star’” is about a family coming together,” actress playing the lead role of ‘Alice’ senior Carrie Mercer said. “Basically it jumps in time chronologically and it starts with a girl named Alice and a young man who comes to her work. She’s a publisher, and he needs to publish a story. Later we find out they are related, and connected through this big messy love story.”
The audition process began August 24, including multiple steps that were required to earn a role.
“For auditions we had to prepare16 measures of a song that we sang to our directors,” junior Grace Eason said. “Then for dancing auditions we learned choreography from Terry Wilkerson, and we all performed it in different groups.”
Even with theatrical experience, there are always difficulties for each actor during the audition process, according to Eason, who earned the role of Margo Crawford, a childhood friend of the male lead Billy Cane.
“”For me the most difficult part is the singing auditions because I don’t like to sing,but it’s always good to get my nerves out,” Eason said.
The cast has been working hard to perfect their singing, dancing and acting skills with rehearsals everyday.
“So for rehearsals we normally go four to six Monday through Friday, and then dancers in the dancing ensemble have rehearsals on Saturdays that range from from three to four hours,” Mercer said.
With singing, dancing and acting all being important components of the show, teachers such as the choir director Remel Derrick, theater director Kyle Martin and dance instructor Terry Wilkerson, all contribute to the success of the students and their performances.
“During our singing rehearsals, we all crowd around, and we learn our part of the song with Mr. Derrick and then we sing it together,” Eason said. “For blocking Mr. Martin tells us where we should go and we write it in our script for later.”
Although the rehearsal season for the musical has just begun, practices span from four to six PM nearly every day.
“Most of the time we’ll read music for the first hour, and we’ll block, which means we’re walking around on the stage acting for the second half,” Mercer said.
The show dates for the musical begin on November 7, and the last performance is on November 10.
“My favorite part of the musical, I really love our opening number,” Mercer said, in reference to the song ‘If You Knew My Story’. “That’s my favorite song that I get to sing. The ensemble sings it with me, and everybody gets to have a moment in that song.”
