[one_half last=”no”]
[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]
[/one_half]
[one_half last=”no”]
[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]
[/one_half]
The first musical of the school year will be Oklahoma!, performed from Feb 7-10. The cast was announced Friday, Sept 14 with junior Zane Haney, senior Yasmeen Vinson, junior Cole Becker, and senior Lena Crown earning the lead character roles of Curly McLain, Laurey Williams, Will Parker and Ado Annie, respectively.
Those who auditioned found out what roles they had received on Sunday, Sept 16 when they were posted on the stage door to the auditorium.
Becker, who will be in the school musical for the second straight year, said he wanted the part of Will Parker, a cowboy, because he found Parker to be a fun loving character.
“He’s a very smiley, likable character, which I liked. I also love cowboys and have wanted to be a cowboy for the first 14 years of my life,” Becker said.
Haney said this was the part he wanted from the start because of the outgoingness of McClain while Crown said she found Annie to be comical and silly, something she’s glad about because it will make the acting part of the character much easier.
To prepare for their auditions, students had to memorize a short section of one of the songs from the musical and sing that in front of director Amy Moorehead. In addition, participants must have also memorized a nursery rhyme that will be performed in the style of certain characters, as decided by Moorehead.
The nursery rhyme serves as the acting part of the audition and will help decide which part is given to certain individuals, Crown said.
Becker chose to sing Big River by Johnny Cash and recite Jack and Jill because he likes Cash and Jack and Jill was the only rhyme he knew. Haney said he chose Humpty Dumpty because it’s the only nursery rhyme he knows as well, and because of the fact he learned on the day of tryouts that it was required to recite one. Crown, on the other hand, had a more methodical approach to her choices.
“I sang If I Were a Bell from Guys and Dolls because it was silly and enthusiastic like Ado Annie’s personality, and I chose Little Ms. Moffat as my nursery rhyme because it could be acted to portray the character’s weakness for men,” Crown said.
Crown, who has performed in the musicals for the past three years, said that she had such a good time performing in Bye Bye Birdie, last year’s musical, that she wanted to participate this year again. She chose to tryout for the play more because of the singing and dancing aspects of the play but is excited for the acting as well.
“I chose to try out more for a combination of singing and dancing originally since I have no acting experience, but I really liked learning more about acting in Bye Bye Birdie, so I’m excited to work more on that,” Crown said.
Becker echoed Crown’s sentiments saying that he’s never been good at acting but hopefully he does well. Haney, however, cited both as motivators for trying out for his first high school musical, saying that acting and singing are his passions.
Crown feels that the musical is a good opportunity to also showcase the level of talent of the dancers in the performance. She said that the music and added comedy will make it a more entertaining musical than some of the past.
“I think Oklahoma!was probably a smart choice because we have a lot of strong dancers and there’s so much dancing in the show,” Crown said.
The musical will be performed from Feb 7-10, 2013.
