Theater, band, choir and orchestra are blasting back to 19th century France with their Hunchback of Notre Dame musical with performances Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
“I feel like [the show] is going really good,” lead actor, sophomore Kyron France said. “It’s really cool to see everybody join together and just see all the different parts of the ensemble with the orchestra, with the choir, with the actors, and everything. So, yeah, pretty good.¨
Alongside the actors are the design crew, painting the set and getting the stage ready for show day.
“So, I am the scenic design lead, so I, you know, design the set with the help of my crew,” sophomore Riley McClaren said. “I think my favorite experience [of the play] has definitely been the leadership roles and the opportunities to grow as a leader and the creativity of it all. Like being able to, you know, follow the script and follow what it’s all about, but also adding our own little hints to it. Like giving it personality.”
But with this big project comes a time commitment and collaboration with other organizations, which is a change for some theater students.
¨[Musicals are different from plays because] you have a lot more work put into it and you have orchestra, band, choir – all of the fine arts – working together, so it’s very fun yet stressful and chaotic,¨ freshman Moksha Uppalapati said. ¨But the outcome is definitely memorable.¨
Even for band students that perform music for several supplemental events not affiliated with their organization, playing for this musical is a unique experience.
¨[Playing with the] big orchestra is different [from] band because we have to work with the string instruments, but there’s a whole new element working on a musical because there’s vocal cues and there’s vamps, and so we had to learn a couple new terms,¨ senior french horn player Max Dowd said. ¨It’s been really fun to try to mesh a bunch of different activities together.”
Orchestra students value the opportunity to truly immerse themselves in the music they play through this performance.
¨[Playing with theater allows us to be more expressive] because there’s actually emotion on stage and then we get to feel that and embrace that in our play,¨ junior violinist Megan Hou said.
McClaren is proud of what weeks of rehearsal have resulted in, and she believes this is a show people won´t want to miss.
“A lot of hard work has been put into it from the actors and the technicians,” McClaren said. ¨There’ve been, you know, a lot of ups and downs, but that’s what makes it, I think, a good show. Beautiful story, beautiful soundtrack, talented actors and technicians, coming together to make this all come to life and it is definitely gonna be worth your time.”
Tickets are $10 for students and $15 for adults.
