Rehearsals for Middle School Musical “Footloose” begin
November 15, 2016
By: Keila McCabe ’20
Photos taken by: Giselle Dalili ’20 and Keila McCabe ’20
Rehearsals for the fall musical, “Footloose”, started at the end of September, and the cast will continue to rehearse until their performances on Nov. 17-20. The cast has been preparing everyday after school, along with some weekend rehearsals.
The rehearsals have been mainly vocals and dancing so far. Cast lists came out on Sept. 24, and the cast has been working in separate groups for their roles.
“Right now we are kind of in the preliminary couple of weeks, and we’re trying to get organized right up until the point where we go to retreat. We’ve been spending time on vocals, on dance and on the actual blocking and the movement of the actors,” performing arts teacher and director of the musical Jim Doughan said.
Singers have been practicing with vocal coach Meredith Pyle and accompanist Christopher Wong on learning all their songs before retreat. Dance rehearsals have been with dance teacher Melissa Schade. The vocal, dancing and blocking rehearsals have been a rotation depending on which cast members are needed for which numbers.
“Footloose” follows Ren, played by Tyler Ganus ’20, who moves to a small midwestern town where rock music and dance are illegal. Ren meets the rebellious preacher’s daughter Ariel, played by Bianca Garfinkle ‘20. Alongside Ariel and other friends, Ren goes against conservative Reverend Shaw Moore, played by James Johnson-Brown ‘21, and the rest of the adults in the town to try and bring back dance, rock music and liveliness to the quiet town.
Cast members said that they are enjoying rehearsals and making friends behind the scenes.
“Rehearsals are great. Even for a big role like mine, there’s downtime between scenes, which can be great for homework or socializing with your friends in the show. When the full cast is on stage, everyone is focused, and I feel a real connection with everyone around me,” Johnson-Brown said.
