The Making of A High School Musical: Act II (Buckling Down With Six Weeks to Go)

With only six weeks until the live performances of Blood Brothers, the cast and crew are ready to get on the move with the production.

The musical was chosen by director Terri Brennan to challenge the cast. The cast has been working hard, and they appear to have the talent to meet Brennan's challenge—each of the main performers has been on stage in many shows.

The show is 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.

Carley Del Sordo, who is cast as Linda, the girl the twins love, is trying to do her best with the part.

“I am emotionally connecting with Linda," Del Sordo says. "She is a challenging character to play, and I am putting everything I have into making her come to life. I can especially connect to her when she is in her teenage years.”

Del Sordo also thinks that it will be a new side of a musical for the town to see.

Andrew Troum agrees and says he knows the show is “for a mature audience”.

The leads now have their lines and blocking memorized for Act 1 and have also begun the next scenes.

The twins, Mickey and Eddie, are double-casted: Troum with Jason Shirk, and A.J. Klein with Ryan Walsh.

These students are no strangers to the stage. Troum’s most memorable performance was on the professional stage at Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theater for A Christmas Carol.

Walsh is a member of 123 Draw and performed in the previous OCHS shows. 

Another crucial part of Blood Brothers involves set design. High school staff memer David Ferrante is in charge, and he works with Brennan to put the show together. To begin, they meet to discuss props for the show—Ferrante makes Brennan’s vision happen, but on a reasonable budget. Once the plans are finalized, they bring in Aaron Bogushefky to go over color schemes.

The next step involves getting working plans together that can be followed during construction. In the following week, students meet that are interested in stage crew and they go over pieces and jobs.

“Construction begins with delivery or pick-up of material by using the working plans to calculate material needs,” Ferrante says. “Pieces are constructed in order keeping mind of the artist.”

This means that pieces that will take longer to paint and design will be constructed first. As each piece is finished, the stage crew introduces it to the actors. This is good because the stage crew will discover any problems with the usual parts like doors, stairs, landings, hatches or weapons.

Ferrante is very qualified to design the set. He teaches two of the three Project Lead the Way courses at Ocean City High School, along with a design and problem solving course and a woodworking course. This is his sixth year building sets for school plays.

Like Ferrante, Brennan brings experience to the job. She has directed children’s shows, shows for Sea Isle City Players and the Youth Opera Company. At the high school, Brennan has directed South Pacific, MASH, Pride & Prejudice, Fiddler on the Roof, Guys & Dolls and others. She hopes students get a lot of experience and confidence from the show.

“Everything is going exceptionally well. Students know the music and know the lines," Brennan says. "They come to rehearsal ready to work, and they seem to be having a good time. If I have to choose one area, I must say that costumes are very close to being completely done. This is no easy task, but our costume mistress, Nancy Karsner, has already prepared over 100 costumes for this show!”

But as the show dates for Blood Brothers draw near, there is still much work to be done.