The Making of A High School Musical: Act I (From Auditions to Early Rehearsals)

Auditions are announced in November, and for the first time, students will have to sing a song from the new show in their tryout. Everyone is tense, because it will be a new musical—Blood Brothers is nothing like Singin' In the Rain, Into the Woods or Beauty and the Beast, the previous shows at Ocean City High School.

Blood Brothers, written by Willy Russell, is a musical about twin brothers, separated at birth because their mother cannot afford to keep them both. One stays with his mother and one goes off to a rich family, and the twins are said to never know each other. But when they both fall in love with the same girl, everything falls to the ground in this dark drama.

The show at the high school will be directed by high school staff member Terri Brennan, who must pick a cast of students to perform a very difficult show.

Winter break is a tense time. Students rehearse in attempts to guarantee they get the parts they want. The day of the audition, students are running around trying to find friends to join in on the audition group. A sign-up sheet is posted, and by 11:30 a.m., everyone has a set time and group of peers to perform with. But students must wait a week before the final cast list is announced.

Students have come to respect Brennan, because they see her decisions as based on talent, not favoritism. The cast list is posted by 10 in the morning a week after the auditions, and students flock around the door. Some laugh. Some cry. And some just walk away with no expression on their face. But the list is final, and no changes are to be made.

The lead roles of the twins, Mickey and Eddie, are to be performed by Andrew Troum, Jason Shirk, A.J. Klein and Ryan Walsh.

After the casting, rehearsals begin. An average week includes around 13 hours of rehearsal. As the April 7 to 9 shows get closer, more rehearsals will be added. But, that isn’t all the time that the lead performers must sacrifice. They must go home and memorize their lines by Sunday, Feb. 13, or face consequences. Then there are songs to remember and blocking to perfect. Other cast members spend the rehearsal eating, doing homework and hanging out with friends when not on stage.

Rojo’s Tacos—where students get tacos, nachos and drinks—provides a popular distraction and some necessary sustenance.

Despite the pressure, or maybe because of it, the Drama Guild students are a family—perhaps closer than any other club, activity or sport at the high school.

(Within the coming weeks, students will see stage crew start to put together props and the set. In Act II of our story, coming soon, learn about set design, stage crew costumes and sound. Also, look for interviews from the leads, and how they feel about the show.)

____________________________

On Facebook: Ocean City Patch