March is coming to an end, and preparations for the spring showcase are in full swing. Marriotts Ridge Theater was expecting to perform a full musical, “The Wedding Singer”, but due to effects of COVID-19, it was decided that a showcase would be easier to prepare in a shorter amount of time.
“I chose to do a showcase because I thought that it would be, no pun intended, the best way to showcase our students for this year. The nice thing about this type of performance is that it provides opportunities for a lot more students to shine,” Mr. Beall, the theater director said.
The showcase is titled “You, Me, and a Song ” and will be performed on March 31st at 7pm and April 2nd at 3pm.
Many students who were cast in the original show will be participating in the showcase and will be performing numbers in solos, duets, and trios, along with two numbers including the entire cast.
“The showcase is based on emotions. So, we’ve got an opening number, a closing number, and then five different themes,” senior and stage manager Nathan Kabrhel said.
The five different themes will be ‘I want’ songs, love, anger, sadness, and redemption, with a dance number at the halfway point. Students’ performances will be based on these themes. In order for students to choose their pieces for the show, cast members had to go through another sort of audition process.
“We took the cast and had them pick songs that they might want to sing and audition with them. Then, we took what we heard them sing and matched them to songs that kind of created a story,” Kabrhel said.
Many cast members are excited about the new format of the show due to previous concerns about doing a full musical.
“I actually prefer doing a showcase over a full musical,” freshman Samhita Kalla said. “ I feel like a musical takes a lot of effort and especially with the time that we have- we don’t really have a lot of it- I feel like a showcase was the best thing we could have done with the timeframe.”, Kalla said.
Due to the fact that there’s less to put together, rehearsals have been focused on the two group numbers. This is much less stressful on the cast than if there was a full musical to prepare.
“It wasn’t my favorite idea, but it does have some things that, at least, in my opinion, make it better. Because then you have the chance to switch between characters, styles, things like that, and it gives you more flexibility,” sophomore Will Fullerton said.
Cast members like how the showcase format gives more people an opportunity to perform, rather than having a handful of people be leads while everyone else has only a small part in the ensemble.
Despite many benefits to a showcase, some participants feel that there are drawbacks. “Having a plot is definitely the advantage of a full on musical, so that’s something that I prefer,” senior Jessie Jefferies said. Having a full plot isn’t the only possible drawback for some.
“I prefer to do a big show, especially since it’s so much more fun doing ensemble work, but I think doing a cabaret (showcase) will showcase more people and more voices, which will be nice,” freshman Allison Mehta said.
Although there may be some drawbacks, cast members are excited to still have an opportunity to perform something this year. For many, this will be their first performance in almost two years.
“I’m very excited to just perform in it [the showcase] because this will be my first theater performance in high school,” sophomore Fullerton said.
As the performance dates near and final preparations are made, students are looking forward to being able to showcase their talents, and they hope the audience will enjoy the show.