Theatre Program Prepares for the Spring Musical
January 24, 2022
Susquehannock’s theatre program is in full swing getting ready for the spring musical.
With only a few short weeks until the show, the cast and crew are working hard in preparing to perform this spring’s musical, “SpongeBob.”
Playing the role of SpongeBob is senior Juliana Quintilian who is happy with the cast and is looking forward to the show.
“They’re doing great. I think our casting is fantastic, and everybody is definitely getting dedicated to the show,” Quintilian said. “[This show] is definitely a lot to do in a short amount of time, so it’s kind of hectic, it’s kind of stressful, but I think we’ve got a good running start.”
Senior Natalie Whelan, playing several roles in the show, is excited to see how other actors are able to portray their characters.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how [the actors] interpret all of their characters because this is a very comedic, character-driven show,” Whelan said.
Junior stage manager Lauren Paules feels confident about preparations thus far, despite various setbacks.
“With COVID, a lot of kids have been absent, but we’re really fortunate that in some scenarios [as] we can use Google Meets so that [actors] can still participate and learn their parts,” Paules said. “We have such a short time to get it done, and a lot of them realize that and they’re excited and ready to go.”
Quintilian acknowledges aspects of this musical that are different from previous shows.
“Well, it’s stupid, but it’s a good kind of stupid: it’s silly and quirky,” Quintilian said. “And it’s focused on musical numbers, but it’s really just about displaying these cartoon characters, which is something that we’ve never done before.”
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The actors are putting extensive work towards this show, and Paules describes their busy rehearsal schedules.
“Each week we have blocking, dance and vocals,” Paules said. “Usually, that’s four or five times a week, especially for the leads. We start at the beginning of the show and work our way through scenes and through the two acts towards the end.”
The crew is preparing as well, and the set construction is moving along.
“Set construction is good,” Paules said. ¨We’re working on the big set pieces first, [and] we’re very grateful that we get to rent a lot of stuff from another theatre.¨
Quintilian describes the difficult and critical aspects of this musical.
“I think for this show it’s [going to] be a lot of memorization because there’s so many dances and there’s so many songs,” Quintilian said. “And since all the musical numbers are big, long numbers, it’s gonna be just building up our stamina and then memorizing everything else.”
Paules describes her favorite part of theatre and doing a show.
“I love tech week, tech week is my favorite,” Paules said. “I’m looking forward to that the most, [and] a lot of people wouldn’t say that, but it’s my favorite because you get to see the cast and crew come together.”
Paules illustrates the differences in this musical from previous shows.
“I would say that the most different is definitely the time but also the fact that this is really a heavy singing musical,” Paules said. “There’s not many scenes where there’s not singing. That can be straining on actors’ voices, so that’s definitely different, we’re trying to be careful in preparing for that at the same time.”
Quintilian describes her love for acting and this theatre program.
“I love it all, I love performing, I love being on stage, it’s probably one of my favorite things, if not my favorite thing in the entire world, and the people there just make it so much better,” Quintilian said. “We all support each other, it’s a very supportive and loving community.”
Whelan appreciates her experiences with the theatre program.
“It’s helped me become more confident in myself, and I’ve been doing theatre for 8 years now,” Whelan said. “Doing theatre makes me happy.”
Quintilian explains how she feels about finishing out her last show with Susquehannock.
“I’m really excited, [and] I’m really sad,” Quintilian said. “It’s definitely very bittersweet because it’s my last one and I want it to be good. I want it to be the best that I can make it.”
Due to tight budgets, the Susquehannock Theatre program is looking for donations to support this production. Donations are accepted through this event fundraising site.
The SpongeBob Musical is set to be performed from March 25-27 in the high school auditorium.