EDITORIAL

It’s showtime for high school musicals

Last week, this space celebrated high school student-athletes.This week, we’re going to celebrate the student-actor (some of whom may also be athletes).

By March, winter — and this year more than ever — has us weary and longing for a getaway. You needn’t look farther than your local high school auditorium.

There, you may find yourself visiting a desert or strange, colorful non-sensical world or perhaps Transylvania.

A grand selection of plays and musicals are available to help you chase away the winter doldrums.

Last weekend it was the classic “The Music Man” at Avon Central School.

This weekend’s brings us the whimsical “Seussical the Musical,” an adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ popular rhyming stories, to Dansville Central School from Thursday to Saturday.

Or maybe you prefer the comedy of Mel Brooks. A musical of Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein” film is coming to Livonia, beginning Thursday and continuing through Saturday.

Next weekend sees another production of “Seussical,” this one at Honeoye Falls-Lima Central School, and “The Little Prince” at Geneseo Central School. The latter is said to feature a large section of fuselage from a vintage airplane right on stage.

Consider for a moment how much a ticket to a Broadway performance could cost you — or even how much tickets to recent performances of “Book of Mormon” were in Rochester and Buffalo.

Yet for a small amount you can see a theatrical gem right here in Livingston County.

And wait until you see what young talent couple with hard work can produce.

Each production involves dozens of young people. There’s the stars you’ll see on stage, and those unseen doing the behind-the-scenes work that keeps the show running smoothing.

For months actors have been learning their lines as musicians have been mastering the music. There’s choreography, lighting, costumes and make-up, sound, publicity … so much must come together before the curtain can even open.

It’s a community effort. Parents with their children, faculty with students. All are pitching even evening after evening at rehearsals to make sure all the details are ironed out and the performance is as perfect as can be.

Some groups have been working since last fall. That means long days and a willingness to give up vacations and free time to work on the plays.

Just as the student-athletes deserve the praise they receive for their hard work, so, too, do the students who choose the arts and make up the casts, crews and orchestras of our local school plays and musicals. Some may pursue a career in the arts and you can say “I saw them when …” and for others it’ll be one more high school memory.

Make a point of attending your local high school production. If we haven’t listed it here, keep looking — call your school to find out times and ticket prices.

You’ll leave the performance with a good feeling about the hard work and determined attitudes of today’s youth. You’ll have a smile on your face, and maybe even singing a tune.

But best of all is the whole lot of students you’ll have smiling for being their audience.

 

— By Ben Beagle, EDITOR