Student performers and audience members will be perfectly in tune when The Music Man marches onto the PAC stage April 23-25. The musical showcases a variety of entertainment, such as singing, dancing, and comedy.
“It’s a classic, very family-friendly musical,” David Harmon, director and drama teacher, said. “Last year we did The Drowsy Chaperone, which is very smart and it’s very witty and it has a lot of very fun characters, but it’s less familiar than The Music Man. [Different scenes from the musical have] popped up in so many different pop culture areas that people may not even notice until they see the show. There’s just a lot of familiar songs from the show and overall, it’s just a big, fun musical; there’s a ton of dancing, and it just really showcases our talents really well this year.”
According to Harmon, it takes a lot of time, hard work, and planning in advance to cover the singing, dancing, and memorizing lines that is put into the production.
“We rehearse from 3:30 until 6:30 everyday,” Harmon said. “It doesn’t mean that everyone is going to be called [to rehearsal] every day during the week, [though]. Saturdays are usually 9[am] until 4[pm], with a lunchbreak.”
Each day of rehearsal is planned out accordingly in order to get as much work done as possible.
“We end up very often having three rehearsals happening at the same time,” Harmon said. “We will have some people scheduled in vocal rehearsal with Mr. Juknelis, and at the same time, different people are being used in a dance number with our student choreographers, meanwhile I’m doing a scene between some actors in the orchestra room or in the poms room. We try to maximize so that there’s not just one thing happening at a time, so that we can get the most out of rehearsal that we can.”
Each of the actors work together six days out of every week to make sure they are getting everything well organized and memorized.
With all of the practicing and work put into the production of The Music Man, some directors may stress one lesson on their actors more than others.
“The biggest challenge is trying to get the actors to not necessarily play up the ‘cheese factor’ of [their character’s lines in the script] in the moments where that wouldn’t be appropriate,” Harmon said.
Each of the actors starring in the musical has to have a way of playing the role of their own character in the show, and each has his or her own techniques.
“First, I watch the original show [The Music Man], then I decide how I want to deliver the line or portray the lyrics,” Erin Leahy, senior, who plays Marian Paroo (the librarian), said. “Memorizing lines and dances comes with repetition at practices, so it helps to have lots of practice time.”
Not only do the actors practice how they are going to play the role of their character, but they also work on keeping their voices strong and clear before each of the upcoming performances.
“All I do is rest my voice a few days before [the performances] and drink lots of Throat Coat tea,” Leahy said. “Then I warm up with the rest of the cast by doing [voice] scales before the show starts and pray that everything goes well.”
During rehearsals and before each of the upcoming shows, positive energy plays a large part in helping the cast become more prepared before getting up on stage and putting on a performance for an audience.
“A lot of us are in choir, so, that helps us get [vocally] prepared,” Peter Iliopoulus, junior, who plays Constable Locke, said. “For a performance, I think [the cast] just being around each other with all of the energy building up is what gets us most prepared for the show.”
Tickets will be sold online and at the door on the nights of the show. Tickets are $10 for students and $12 for adults.