Behind the Scenes of Beauty and the Beast
Every year the Upper School Thespians put together a musical, this year the production will be Beauty and the Beast. Chris D’Angelo, Carroll Kelly, and Sha’Quan Johnson have been working hard on this musical for months now alongside with the student thespian cast and crew. The play will be presented at 7pm in the Gardner center this Friday and Saturday.
Mr. D’Angelo’s reason for choosing this particular play is because he feels like alternating between experimenting with more non-typical shows, such as Zombie Prom and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee among others, and more classic musicals that are adored by the public, such as Seussical and Charlie Brown. He also believed that a Disney classic would attract people from varying grades and ages and was more appealing to the whole school community. D’Angelo says that there have been a few challenges putting together this musical “the show is huge, the costumes, the set, the props are about as big as you can get on our small stage”, but overall everyone seems confident that the show is ready to be put out to the public and performed for an audience.
Sophomore crew member, Christian Nguyen, says “the play has been a hard and long journey with challenges, but we pulled through and have a great production”. Many other crew members seem to feel the same way and are enthusiastic about the show, as they have all volunteered to take part in it. Furthermore, set pieces and light designs also deserve appreciation as hours of hard labor have been put into both by Zach Pitchman and “Groovey”. Members of the cast have been rehearsing every day for over a month and are very happy with the outcome of the play so far. Daniel Gallup, portraying the role of Gaston, shares his thoughts about the play “Mr. D’Angelo and Ms. Kelly are great leaders and all the cast members are so kind and accepting. I hope that everyone enjoys watching the musical as much as I enjoyed rehearsing it.” Overall this musical has come a long way in the past few months thanks to so many teachers and students that have contributed and dedicated themselves to this wonderful experience. Come watch this musical story unfold on stage in the Gardner Center starting at 7:00pm Friday and Saturday!
