Students, staff rally together to put on ‘High School Musical, Jr.’

By Robert Williams

Editor

The word “teamwork” gets tossed around stories about athletics commonly, but the crew of this fall’s performances of “High School Musical, Jr.” had to form multiple teams to come together and pull off four excellent shows last weekend to complete a run that had a potentially rocky start.

An unexpected resignation early in the school year by the choir director made for changes to people’s roles, mandated extra help from volunteers, and a complete reconfiguration of the process.

“I didn’t know what to do either, from the beginning,” said Band Director, Producer and Tech Director Brian Selander. “She resigned the second week of school. She did auditions and then she resigned and I was like, do I tell the kids? Do I not tell the kids? Do we just say she’s sick right now, but then, it’s going to come out.”

Selander and the cast and crew were the benefactors of three volunteers who stepped up to see that rehearsals did not miss a beat, including two former students.

“We had the two directors, Lacie (Lepisto) and Joan (LaSart), and their plan was to be here once or twice a week,” Selander said. “They were actually going to overlap Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, so there would always be somebody here with me. They were going to be here to be an extra set of eyes and hands. Joan had just graduated last year and she wanted to get back into it a little bit. Lacie would stop in from year to year to see how things were going.”

Lepisto and LaSart were soon faced with decisions on contributing much more.

“When all of this went down, I sat down with them and said you guys are going to have to take a bigger role in this and if you’re okay with that we can try to move forward,” Selander said. “Let’s not try to postpone it or move it to another date. That never works to do that stuff.”

Selander pondered moving the musical back to spring, but there is a student trip planned for Florida, which was the reason the musical was moved to the fall.

This season’s musical also depended on choreography.

“Mary Zink, who did all the choreography for us, her granddaughter was in the cast, and she’s had experience choreographing other shows at other schools,” said Selander. “Joan had heard Mary would be willing to help, as well. Knowing that they were on board with helping out, we just said ‘let’s roll with it.’”

The three volunteers were essential for the show to go on.

“I would have said no, we can’t do this,” Selander said. “Knowing that they were here and helping out we figured we could handle it and we did. It required them to be here almost every night and that was more than they had asked for at the beginning. Joan had both acting and the vocal side of things. Lacie took a lot of the stage direction and it allowed me to do a lot of the singing aspect of things.”

Selander’s handling of the situation and how he communicated with the students in the cast and in production was credited as the biggest, positive influence on getting rehearsals started and making progress.

“A lot of communication; it’s really important,” said co-Set Designer Emma Ketter.

Ketter and Reilynn Tracy provided the main effort behind making a creative and versatile backdrop to the musical. Some of the set painting began back in July.

“Rei was also a cast member and we were splitting up the work pretty well, but when our choir teacher left I pretty much had to take the reins a little bit because Rei had to help with the cast in the choir room most of the time,” said Ketter. “It emotionally affected a lot of people; I think Mr. Selander did a very good job of handling it. He was very honest. I think some of us were kind of worried that he would be super stressed out and he wouldn’t tell us or he wouldn’t ask for help about it, but I think he was very good at communicating with us.”

“It was sort of a shotgun marriage at that point,” said SiAnna Brakefield. “Somebody dropped out and we had to carry it with ourselves but I think we did amazing with the short notice we had with that.”

Brakefield played the lead role of Gabriella Montez in the musical, something she was very prepared to do.

“It was my first big lead role at this school and it was my dream role in my dream musical,” she said. “I’m glad I got to do it with my friends and some new people. A lot of us had fun and it was sort of sad at the end because it felt like a lot of people’s senior year.”

Getting that role was imperative to Brakefield.

“It was a blessing,” she said. “I prayed.”

It also seemed like there was some planning in getting her dream role. SiAnna was benefited by the willingness of friend and co-star Simon Lasart, who played opposite Brakefield as Troy Bolton.

“He’s very introverted, but he talks to you if you need him to,” Brakefield laughed. “Once you get to know him, he’s very much a bubbly, and weird, and unique person. Last year, he was like, ‘I’m not going to be Troy!’ but he got very attached to this role and so did I. I think it was because it was him and me—because we’re friends. It’s easier to do it with friends than an acquaintance.”

The close relationship the two had allowed the leads in the musical to get up to speed quickly.

“It just clicked,” said Brakefield. “I was like Simon, we’re going to have to act cringey on stage, like when you have to make people know you’re attracted to each other, and he was like, ‘whatever.’”

LaSart’s laissez-faire approach was a perfect match for Brakefield’s desire to play the lead pair, something she had been rehearsing for years with her older sister.

SiAnna and her sister grew up on “High School Musical” from around the ages of 8 and 13.

“We would sing songs together and do our own performance,” SiAnna said. “We memorized every line in the movie. She would be my Troy and I would be Gabriella.”

That practice paid off for Brakefield.

“I knew my lines the first week; I was obsessed,” she said.

Fall change aided production

Ketter and Tracy had the experience of working on the set for last spring’s performance of “Mary Poppins, Jr.” They also got an early start on how to decorate the stage.

“This is our first year doing it in the fall and for production that was a big advantage because we tend to take quite a while to paint and we wanted to make sure we got it right,” Ketter said.

The move was to avoid student schedule conflicts, but last spring’s unpredictable weather patterns made for much of the reason the musical was moved.

“We did it partly because of sports; we didn’t want them to conflict with each other and I think weather was also a big thing,” said Ketter.

“It is nice to know we’re wrapped up before the main snow flies for the year,” Selander said. “That was the biggest problem last year, we lost so many rehearsals because of weather. Even for performances, you’re not guaranteed a good weekend.”

Ketter and Tracy put a lot of hours into the stage that they would not have had the luxury of doing during the latter half of the school year.

“It made things more convenient for us because we could come in for hours every single day and work on it together and we didn’t have to worry about coming in after school and having people here for a different event,” said Ketter.

Ketter and Tracy were joined by Reilynn’s cousin Jayden Sappie, who is not a FHS student, but helped the girls get a start on a big project that took from July to just a few days before the first performance.

“It’s a big time commitment,” Ketter said. “I would come in some days from 10 a.m., to 9 o’clock at night and then after school some days come in at 3 and work until 9 o’clock at night.”

When Tracy had to turn some of her focus to the singing aspect of the production, it allowed Ketter to really take charge of finishing the look of the stage.

“I’m very fortunate to get to work with very passionate and creative people without having to be in front of the audience,” Ketter said.

Again, communication was the key to success in set design as it was with acting and directing.

“We had a lot of communication out of school for planning,” Ketter said. “We kept the setup of the flats the same from last year. I did the gym flat and the two theater flats and then Reilynn did the classroom and the locker flat. We decided what part of the stage we wanted to be what, and we would do sketches digitally and send them to each other and get each other’s thoughts on them. This year was kind of easy because the color palette was the same throughout; we didn’t have to individually decide what colors we wanted to use for everything.”

Ketter credits a pair of seniors from last year who were willing to ask a sophomore for her assistance. That’s how she got involved with the musical.

“Last year was my first year on the production team and two seniors, Alexis Heaton and Melody Justnes, were in charge of everything and they kind of recruited me,” Ketter said.

As a junior, Ketter is beginning to do the same and offering the opportunity to other kids. 

“We’re currently trying to find underclassmen to take our positions when we graduate,” she said.

Ketter also has a solid selling point on the process.

“I don’t really see this as an obligation or something that gets in the way of everything else,” said Ketter. “Usually, school can be kind of stressful and I think this is the place where I don’t really have to think about things as much. I’m not really a singer, but I can help the people who are by creating the scene for them.”

Choice of musical mattered

By choosing a contemporary musical, one in which many of the kids were already familiar, was a boon to both production and performance, especially with a lead who was ready to go.

“SiAnna came in right away and they knew all the songs and have heard them before because they’ve seen the movie,” said Selander. “The music came to them pretty easily because of all that. It definitely helped.”

Something from the 1950’s, like “Guys and Dolls,” would have exponentially increased the rehearsal load. 

“It would have taken a lot more for the kids to learn,” Selander said. “When we announced we were doing this one the kids, right away from day one, were super excited. We’ve had some years where we pick one and they’re like, ehh, and then it grows on them.”

With no way to foresee the future, the choice for “High School Musical” was fortuitous.

“Sometimes, it is lucky,” Selander said. “You can plan all you want, sometimes, you have to take the fork in the road and figure it out.”

Brakefield gave a lot of credit to former student Joan LaSart.

“We were blessed with Joan LaSart, who is Simon’s older sister,” Brakefield said. “She was tremendous at singing. She helped me with the harmonies and she was sort of our choir teacher.”

Brakefield also praised the cast and crew for sharing the spotlight and making her dream role come true.

“Elston (Yost) was new and he just took Chad’s character and absorbed it. He was amazing at it,” Brakefield said. “Rei did amazing as Taylor because she’s sort of a studious, smart girl and she’s sort of sassy. She took Taylor’s role and made it her own. Ryan (Evans), our Joe, he was perfect for Ryan. There was not a second thought and Onalea (Maijala), of course, she’s sassy also. She was perfect for Sharpay; she’s bubbly and sassy and she’s kind of intimidating,”

A distinct height difference between Brakefield and Maijala added to the exchanges between their characters on stage.

“A lot of people said the height difference helped with her being scary,” said Brakefield.

The Joe SiAnna referred to was Joseph Bachleitner, who played a tagalong antagonist Ryan with Maijala’s Sharpay Evans to steal plenty of laughs on stage. Just a few of the many great supporting performances from the entire cast.

“I can’t thank the kids enough for stepping up as much as they did,” Selander said. “They could have said well, we don’t have a director, we can’t do this. They just kept going with it and they worked hard. The leads, obviously, weren’t going to let this not happen. I appreciate all the work they did, but I want to give a shout out to the younger kids too. They’re coming into this and they don’t know the whole process of how a musical works. They were just kind of thrown at it and maybe to them it wasn’t a big deal because I guess this is how it goes. I appreciate all of their work and their time.”

For many of the kids it was a first taste of being a part of the musical and it was a good one for those looking to learn more.

“We had a lot of first and second years in musicals done here; that was the majority of our cast,” said Selander. “They don’t maybe see the end product and know what it’s like to get to that last part. We had a lot more choreography and there were a lot more songs that involved everybody. Some of them were getting a little frustrated, maybe, but they didn’t know what it’s like to get to that performance stage. When you have the lights on you for the last four times on those four performances, it’s kind of an adrenaline rush really for them.”

Selander had a chat with Activities Director Nick Courneya about the differing intricacies in performances, whether it be in athletics or the arts.

“Mr. Courneya was talking about it,” said Selander. “When the team runs onto the court for a basketball game, their biggest hype up moment is that initial run onto the court. That’s when they’re excited. That doesn’t really happen in musicals. You sneak in. You get backstage. Their big hype moment is at the end and it’s a relief too.”

The entire group had a consistent run of positives leading up to performance weekend that concluded on Sunday afternoon.

“There is a lot of emotion before that last show. It’s a lot of tears,” said Selander. “The word ‘family’ comes up so many times when we’re getting ready for that first show and it is. We’re spending three hours a night, three days a week doing this.

“One nice thing that we had, every single rehearsal we had during tech week, leading up to the performance, the kids saw and heard improvement every time. We saw this naturally, including heading into performances and we didn’t hit that plateau before we got to performances.”

The troupe got an extra practice on Wednesday performing for the first time for elementary students. Selander noted the practice run is equally beneficial to cast and crew, as well as including their elementary audience in hopes of inspiring future musical performers.

“I asked the kids afterwards which was their favorite performance and they had a hard time figuring which one was the best,” Selander said. “That’s kind of cool for me too. There wasn’t ever a down performance. All four of your performances were pretty much the same. That’s a very good thing to know the kids were at a level of performance where they can make all four of them identical.”

The bittersweet relief came after concluding the run with the final show on Sunday.

“To get to see their faces after those performances, it’s worth it. It’s a lot of late nights and stress,” Selander said. “It’s your seniors’ last performance and I tell the kids to look around because this is the last time we’re all going to be in the room together getting ready for this performance. The last one, there are definitely emotions going into that. It’s the one song from the musical, ‘We’re All in This Together;’ It’s a good experience and I’m glad our school supports it and lets us do it every year.”

The choir program is currently in flux awaiting a new hire to take over the open position. Selander has included a singing portion for choir students during an upcoming December performance alongside the band.