This year’s WAHS Spring musical, “High School Musical,” is already shaping up to be a success. The 2000’s Disney Channel classic follows the story of two high school students, Troy Bolton (played by Zac Efron) and Gabriella Montez (played by Vanessa Hudgens). The two meet at a ski lodge, and bond through singing karaoke together. Afterwards, Gabriella unknowingly moves to the same town as Troy, and they are reconnected through their school’s musical. However, Gabriella’s involvement in the Science Decathlon and Troy’s commitment to the basketball team prevent them from being able to attend callbacks after their auditions. In order to get the pair to their callbacks, the people involved in the science and basketball events work together to ruin the other’s school activities, and give Gabriella and Troy and chance to act in the musical.
Caitlin Pitts, Western’s Drama teacher and director for the musical, talked about the process of selecting “High School Musical” as this year’s musical. “High School Musical is super family friendly, you know, it’s pretty kidsy. And so that was a big part of why we chose it. Because ‘Legally Blonde’ was rated PG13…we did not encourage kids to come see it at all, so we wanted to do something that kids could come see, and that they would be excited about.” The musical’s positive message and energetic music were a big part of the appeal for the cast and crew. “It’s super lighthearted, the characters are fun to play, the set, we have a great plan in place for the set in a way that’s going to be really colorful and look really good, but not too complicated,” said Pitts.
Cooper McGrane, who will be playing Troy Bolton, is a junior at WAHS. He’s been participating in WAHS Drama productions since 8th grade, including the 2023 performance of “Matilda,” “The Addams Family,” “Into the Woods,” last year’s “Legally Blonde,” and many more. “I really really wanted to do well to prove to myself that the past few years haven’t been a fluke,” McGrane said, explaining the auditioning process for the spring musical.
Carly Beard, a junior, who will be playing Gabriella Montez, has been participating in WAHS Drama since freshman year. She’s played numerous characters in Western’s musicals and plays, such as Brooke Taylor-Windham in last year’s “Legally Blonde,” and Johnny in “The Outsiders.” She began working on choreography for Drama productions last year as a Dance Captain, and has continued to do so for this year’s spring musical with Zyenn Hanning, Maggie Anderson, Annelise Peterson, Isabella Beal, Savannah Juarez, and Isadora Hrabe. “We get to teach the main cast, and we get to come up with all the dances, and it’s just really fun. We kinda watch videos to gather inspiration from it, then write it all down, run it a couple times, and then we get to teach the cast.” Beard said. “Sometimes teaching is a little stressful, especially when there’s usually three of us trying to teach at once… for the most part I enjoy doing the actual dancing and everything.”
June Bennet, a junior, will be playing Sharpay Evens. In previous productions, she played Romeo’s mother in “Romeo and Juliet,” and was part of the ensemble in “The Addams Family.” She’s also the current Assistant Vocal Director for “High School Musical.” “I do attendance, I’ll help out with harmonies and stuff, and sometimes people will come to me for help with learning the part in a song which is cool. I think that music is probably my biggest part of doing the show,” Bennett said, talking about her responsibilities as the Assistant Vocal Director.
One important factor that will change how the fall play and spring musical will be produced is the alteration of the WAHS Drama classes. “There’s a difference next year with our Drama classes,” Pitts said, “because now you can choose whether you want a Drama class that focuses on Musical Theater, or a Drama class that focuses on one hundred percent acting. Not musical, because those are two pretty different things. One, you want to act, sing, and dance, the other one you just want to act.” This change will allow Drama students to focus and hone in on skills that will help them with their chosen career path. During the spring, the acting focused class will work on the one act play for the VHSL Theatre Competition in class, while the Musical Theater focused class will work on the musical.
When this idea was first introduced, some thought it might discourage participation of students outside of Drama. However, Pitts explained that there will still be rehearsals after school, and everyone is still welcome to join. Having students work on the WAHS Drama productions during class time is just one way that the staff is trying to give the cast and crew more time away from the auditorium after school, as rehearsals and set work often goes late. “I feel like our admin and teachers all think it’s a great idea,” said Pitts. McGrane is also interested to see how this shift will affect Western’s musicals and plays. “I’m excited to maybe give it a little more attention then it does get,” he said. “For someone like me who really cares about it…showing up and doing hard work like that is really important to me.”
