Story by Navya Sharma, freshman
Photo by Kim Kehoe, parent
Leading up to this year’s performance of “Footloose,” the cast put in long hours in rehearsal, but new friendships and teamwork helped take the edge off the long hours.
“Going backstage and high-fiving our friends, saying ‘You did a good job on that’, was my favorite part,” said senior Brendon Stevens, who played the role of the Reverend Shaw Moore.
Footloose, held over the weekend of March 31, marks the debut of two new directors, Ms. Perlini and Ms. Niatopsky. They follow in the footsteps of Ms. Quinn and Ms. Daigle.
The show follows Ren McCormack (Nick Jokl), a newcomer to a conservative town where dancing is illegal.
As Ren struggles to find his place in his new home, he uses the help of his new friends – Ariel Moore (Andy Drapeau) and Willard Hewitt (Christian Olak) – in his attempt to change norms.
But before Ren can make changes to the town’s set ways, he must find a way past Rev. Shaw Moore, who stands against his new ideas.
“It’s been amazing – this year we had to look for a director in the beginning of the year so I think we were all very unsure if drama club would happen,” said Jokl.
“But when we heard it was going to happen, we were all very excited. It’s just been a great experience, just being around friends – and I think my favorite part was the music, the music is something we all enjoyed.”
While there were many great aspects to the show, there were the typical challenges behind the scenes.
“Memorization was definitely hard and just being able to – go from a ton of people during auditions and now we’re down to this many – and having to switch parts around and being able to do the quick changes off stage,” said Drapeau.
Anvi Bose, a freshman playing Rusty, said “I didn’t expect them to run so long – it was exciting the first week or so to come to school from 4:30 to 7:30 but after that – it was exhausting,”
Bose said at the beginning of rehearsals she was confused as to why the timings ran for so long but later, she realized that “all this time and more is needed to put together a show.”
The audience could clearly see everyone’s hard work and dedication on showday. The cast did their roles justice, and the tech crew was efficient in their jobs backstage. No mistakes were made and the drama seemed flawless to a spectator’s eye.