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Theater arts department prepares for fall play and musical

The Montoursville High School Theater Department is going all out this year with two shows and its biggest auditioning group in years.

The department may have a challenge this year after last year’s stunning performance of “Freaky Friday.”  However, this year they have shows that they said they believe will blow their audiences out of the water with their choices of a stage adaptation of the beloved children’s story “Charlotte’s Web” for the fall play, and Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” as the spring musical. 

Auditions for both the fall play and the spring musical already took place and cast lists have been announced. The audition processes for the two are very different on both sides of the table. 

For a student auditioning for a play, the process is exponentially more simple as opposed to a musical audition.

When asked how she prepares, Senior Brooklyn Hazen explained, “[It’s] lots and lots of practice. I just practice the monologue Mrs. Gist gives us over and over…I also ask Mrs. Gist any questions I have to make sure I’m preparing the character exactly how she envisions it.” 

For a student auditioning for a musical, the work and preparation becomes much more complicated. On top of the typical monologue memorization, each auditioner must prepare an excerpt from a given song in the show, and then they learn a sample of choreography from the show. This stretches over a week; 2-3 days of student auditions and 1-2 days of directors’ panel deliberation.

Typically Mrs. Kirsten Gist, the MHS theater director, acquires help from a panel of people during this intensive process. These people include Mr. Jared Gist, Music Director for all musical productions, and Ms. Amy Hunsinger, the Choreographer and a former student of Gist. 

Compared to the students, there is even more that goes into the preparation process for Gist. When asked what her workload is like, Gist discussed what it looks like for her when easing into musical auditions.

“…in preparation, we start picking out all of our materials which takes hours outside of school,” Gist said. “We pick the audition songs… Amy prepares choreography in advance, and then we choose monologues for each little character and then choose songs that are difficult enough that students care enough to showcase in an audition, but we also try to pick stuff that is not widely known to see how quickly they can pick up something new.”

The “Charlotte’s Web” cast list features students from various grades. The list was released one day after play auditions on Aug. 28.  Photo provided by Andrew Ware.

For the play, the cast list was released the day after auditions, Featuring Seniors Naomi Alexander and Brooklyn Hazen as well as Freshman Estella Smelko in leading roles.

Remarkably, this is Smelko’s first show at the high school, and she is also the only freshman in the cast.  

This year, the drama department has also recruited many new faces. Most noteworthy is the number of senior boys who want to be involved and have already auditioned.

For example, senior Andrew Trueman – who has never pursued theater previously – has been cast as King Triton for the spring show. Senior Shaw Simpson has been cast in the supporting role, of Grimbsy and Senior Sean Frey is part of the Ensemble as well as Eric’s Understudy.

When asked why he decided to audition Trueman explained, “Everyone in Band and Choir was encouraging me to try out so I just went for it.” He elaborated by saying, “I’m a little nervous since I’ve never been involved with anything theater-related, but I’m excited for it.”

Cast member senior Naomi Alexander takes a selfie of the cast at the first rehearsal for the fall play “Cahrlotte’s Web. This rehearsal was a read-through of the script. This photo was provided by Naomi Alexander.

In regards to “The Little Mermaid” cast list, the official version has yet to be publicly announced. A preliminary version was released but everyone has to accept or decline their roles so as of now, the only roles that can be shared are those that have been accepted.

Show Dates for both “Charlotte’s Web” and “The Little Mermaid” have been released as well.

“Charlotte’s Web” will be a two-day run. With show premiers on Saturday, Oct. 26, and a matinee on Sunday, Oct. 27.

“The Little Mermaid” will be a 3-day premiere on starting Friday, March 14,  continuing through Saturday the 15, and lastly a matinee on Sunday the 16.

Featured image (above): Junior Ali Ravert, senior Audrey Hess, sophomore Kristin Dinges and freshman Estella Smelko rehearse for the fall play “Charlotte’s Web”. Auditions were also already held for this school year’s spring musical “The Little Mermaid”.

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