Winnebago Lutheran Academy performs The Music Man

FOND DU LAC, Wis. (WFRV) – Winnebago Lutheran Academy college students accomplished a four-day run of The Music Man after months of rehearsal.

The musical by Meredith Wilson follows midwest con man Harold Hill to the small city of River Metropolis, Iowa. Hill intends to promote band devices and uniforms to the residents to start out a marching band and skip city after amassing the cash. However he finds himself in a bind when the native music trainer suspects him as a fraud.

Native 5 was there earlier than the Friday efficiency, the place solid and crew say the current Broadway revival of the present was the right method to re-introduce the basic present to the children.

“We selected The Music Man this yr as a result of it’s been on a reprise on Broadway, and so the children have seen that, so it gave them somewhat bit of pleasure. Typically you throw the classics out at them, they usually’re like, we haven’t seen that one as a result of that’s gotten to be too previous,” stated Andrew Mildebrandt, the present’s director.

As a smaller college, placing on any musical creates distinctive challenges for Winnebago Lutheran, however they’ve discovered methods to make it work. Along with many solid and crew members’ involvement in different sports activities and actions, the college’s auditorium and stage are smaller than most.

“We’ve acquired a really small theater. Our wings behind the curtains are solely about three ft large, so we’ve gotta get actually artistic with our staging,” defined Mildebrandt. “The whole lot that’s on stage, we’re not gonna be capable of pull it off stage. So we’ve got to search out other ways to hinge and do different issues to make all of it work collectively.”

However none of these challenges take away from expertise for college students, who say the solid and crew are like a giant household.

“You are feeling such as you’re making a reminiscence each single night time,” stated Riley Kaspar, who performed the function of Ewart Dunlop. “Each single individual is an incredible member of the solid, and all of our administrators are on the market serving to us each single step of the way in which.”

“[My favorite memory] can be the chums and the joking that you simply made alongside the way in which. There’s such a neighborhood round theatre. It actually does really feel like a household if you’re a part of the solid and crew,” Sam Hansmann, who performed the titular Harold Hill, informed Native 5.

One other problem for solid members? The model of dancing within the present, which is about in 1912.

“I feel one of many greatest challenges is unquestionably the dancing, as a result of none of us are educated dancers,” stated Jenna Weigand, who performed music trainer Marian Paroo. “However we’ve got a

spectacular choreographer, and we do a whole lot of practising so finally all of it comes collectively and it appears nice. Now we have a whole lot of enjoyable lifts and dips this yr which makes it much more enjoyable.”

The present additionally has a big ensemble presence, and Kaspar informed Native 5 that every function is crucial to the efficiency, irrespective of how small.

“Being a part of the refrain, you might assume you’re ignored, however no,” Kaspar stated. “You must remember the fact that each single second somebody may very well be watching you. There are actually no small roles, as cliché as that sounds, however actually everybody on the market on stage is admittedly vital.”

Moreover, Winnebago Lutheran is taking part within the Fox Cities Performing Arts Middle’s (PAC) Middle Stage program this yr. Theater packages are capable of get their exhibits critiqued by a crew that offers suggestions to administrators and college students main as much as the Middle Stage Excessive College Musical Theater Showcase occasion subsequent Could. College students say seeing all the opposite colleges’ performances is a spotlight of this system.

“We get tickets to a number of the different colleges’ productions which is admittedly cool too as a result of you’ll be able to see the highschool theatre inside the neighborhood and state,” defined Weigand.

“It’s not a lot as you’re competing towards the opposite performs, however you’re experiencing them with one another,” added Hansmann.

The scholars look ahead to the Middle Stage showcase and awards annually.

“It’s so thrilling, particularly if you see somebody out of your solid stroll up there,” stated Kaspar “You see them obtain an award, it’s actually simply an upbringing of the crew.”

General, seeing all of the items fall into place and all the scholars’ laborious work repay is the perfect a part of each musical for Mildebrandt.

“Whenever you get to these closing weeks, you lastly are capable of have all the children there, all collectively, placing it down… it’s only a implausible feeling.”

The performances ran November 10-12 at 7pm and November 13 at 2pm at Winnebago Lutheran Academy in Fond du Lac.