Middle School Musical Combines Talent, Scenery, Makeup and Costumes

The combination of a talented cast, fun costumes and headdresses, interesting makeup and elaborate scenery that has the directors—and should floor the audience—at Hillsborough Middle School’s spring musical.

The Hillsborough Middle School Musical Theater Troupe presents Disney’s Mulan Junior at 7 p.m. April 1, 2, 8, and 9 and at 2 p.m. April 3, in the Hillsborough Middle School cafetorium.

“The costumes floor me every time, and I’ve seen them every night (we rehearsed),” Director Barbara Doyle said.  “I also really dig the idea of using shadow boxes for the ancestors.”

The choice for the annual show, which students began rehearsing in January, came after several discussions between directors Barbara Doyle and Barbara Szabo, though Doyle said she considered other shows too.

“We went back and forth with a few and this was the only one she said yes to,” Doyle, a Literacy teacher, said.

The cast, choir, pit band rehearsed at various times before and after school, often separately, until finally bringing the show together, Doyle said.

While rehearsing, however, the directors and cast had to balance other commitments, like scouting activities, community service for religious groups, practices for other groups and, for the teachers, their normal teaching duties.

“What sleep,” Doyle joked.  “On top of that, you have to teach your normal classes.”

But the success was a group effort, with many parents and other teachers contributing to the scenery design, costumes and makeup.

“There’s a complicated simplicity to it,” Doreen Lorenzetti, the artist designing the sets, said.  “The kids were great to work with.  They worked very hard.  You have a lot of working together.”

The costumes came from a simple and authentic idea.

“I had a kimono that had been brought to me from Japan so I just took that and elaborated on that,” Diane Sireci, the show’s costume director, said.  “It was one simple idea and we worked with that.”

The makeup concentrated on making the students look like people from ancient China, meaning the makeup crew used color hairspray to tint students’ hair black, as well as using various makeup techniques to evoke the required look.

“We needed certain characters to look certain ways,” Maureen Cohen, the teacher in charge of makeup, said.  “The Huns have to look fierce, the Matchmaker has to look powerful and strong.  We needed the maidens to look beautiful and feminine.”

“Some of the kids had dual roles, where they were women in one act and men in the next,” Cohen added.

Tickets for the show cost $7 and are available either in advance or at the door, though Doyle said several performances are almost sold out.  Those interested in advance tickets can contact Barbara Doyle at bdoyle@k12.nj.us.