The Theater Department is finalizing their preparations to put on the spring musical, Fame. 

“This musical really touches on a lot of issues that teenagers are still facing today, such as racism, substance abuse, temptation, relationships, inter social stuff, and just finding themselves as people apart from their teachers or parents. So, I felt like it was something they could connect with the characters on a personal level,” theater teacher and fame director Mrs. Kirstin Faughn said.  

The show talks about some serious topics that are relevant to teenagers and adults.  Mrs. Faughn chose this play specifically because she thought some of her students that are part of the play could connect to the characters in the story. Some of the students in the department have experienced theater and some of them are experiencing their first musical ever.  

 “I find this show a very interesting show with an amazing plot, and really good characters. And you can see that throughout the show the characters’ personalities change based on the previous school year, and you see them grow as human beings,” Freshmen Valentina Nino who played Serena Katz said

Since this production is one of the students’ first, they are unfamiliar with some of the stuff that is included in the theater. This show specifically has lots of intimate scenes that include people kissing. In theater and movies actors have to go through a process called “Stage Intimacy”, it basically means the actors start to learn their own boundaries and get comfortable with each other, these are some of the preparations that are required and that actors must go through. 

“For my character Serena, she does have some intimate scenes with my love interest and for us to do that we had to learn how to be comfortable with each other, one of the things we had to do for a while was just get our faces really close and learning how to be comfortable with that, then after a few weeks was when we actually started to kiss, in my opinion it was really awkward at first, but after a while you get used to it,” Nino said.

When you are doing a musical or a play it can be overwhelming because of all the certain things they have to do such as buying and making props, getting costumes, soundtrack, and finding a way to get money for any more needed things, especially when you are trying to obtain the rights to a show.   

“Well, when you are obtaining the rights to a show, a certain company owns the rights, so you have to pay per performance. They take into account the numbers of seats that are selling, the price you are selling for, how many performances over how many weeks So, some of the money went towards the rights of the show, and to be allowed to perform it. Some of that money went to the music soundtrack, we had to pay a company to record the music because we do not have a pit orchestra here yet at our school. And the additional money we raised went into costumes, props and set pieces and all of that stuff that goes into the other side of the show,” Faughn said.   

When you are getting a right to a show the final price by the company is decided by the numbers of seats and ticket prices, and how long you will be performing. When you are doing a show as big as Fame there are certain preparations that go into making the show, such as after school rehearsal. Having rehearsal after school helps students go over the scenes that they are in and also lines. There are specific types of rehearsal that theater students have to go through which are dress rehearsal, and tech rehearsal. These are used to run the show the cast and tech crew an idea of what will happen during the show dates, and the tech rehearsal is used for lights and mics and to get them working.   

“I truly feel like tech is one of the most important out of the whole “theater experience” because when you have a tech rehearsal you do the whole show step by step, and I feel like it is an essential tool in theater because you like have to go through everything and it is very similar to what is going to happen in the actual show dates,” Freshmen Loriana Thompson, who played Grace ‘Lambchops’ Lamb said. 

For some of the seniors this meant a lot to them, being their last show. For some students, this could be their last chance to be on stage, but some will continue to work and be involved in the arts. Senior Gracie Gillespie, who played Ms. Greta Bell, plans to be involved in the theater community while she goes to college.  

 “Fame being my last high school production is kind of unreal to me. I have spent so much of my life hiding from the spotlight, I did not think that I would enjoy being on stage as much as I did. When I go to college, I plan to continue being involved in theater whether on or off stage. I most likely will be involved with community theater, as I do not plan on majoring in the arts. However, I am excited to see what the future has in store, and I don’t plan on giving up the stage any time soon,” Gillespie. 

While preparing for the show students learned new things and the class was a very big mix of experienced and inexperienced so it definitely took a while for the new students to be familiar with what the preparations are. After putting the hard work for months, the cast of Fame through an amazing performance  

“My students were a very large mix of experienced and inexperienced, both on stage, vocally, and dance. And they have really come a really long way from what you know, I’m not vocally trained, or I’ve never been on stage before, to know, really getting to know their characters singing four-part harmony, doing choreography. It has been really cool to watch that afternoon,” Faughn said.