On March 7th, 2024 at 7 pm, the musical Guys and Dolls had their opening performance to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience.
Based on The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown, a story about a gambler and missionary girl falling in love, Guys and Dolls originally debuted on Broadway in the 1950s. Since then, it has become prevalent as hundreds of performances have occurred through the decades.
Our STHS directors, actors, and stage crew united and brought a wonderful reproduction of this performance.
This year’s planned musical was not originally Guys and Dolls. The first plan was Footloose, but the directors “then realized that Upper Dublin was doing it the same weekend, so [they] switched gears and decided to do Guys and Dolls,” said Marlene Thornton, adviser and co-director. Marlene found the sudden switch up in musicals proved to be “a little stressful, but the auditions process was about the same, and it was much more stressful for the students.”
Scheduling Practice
Within the workings of the musical, there are about 70-100 people in total, either working backstage or in front of an audience. Having such a large group of students comes with many differing and challenging scheduling problems. Marlene elaborated, “In the past 10-15 years, students have become much more involved in many different activities and also taking a lot more challenging classes, so it is more difficult to balance” the practice schedules. Despite this, Marlene and many others work to ensure that each practice is treated “as if an audience was watching,” said Talar Hovsepian, another STHS thespian.
Choreography, Sound, and Lighting
Additionally, a lot of different factors contribute to the coming together of the musical, such as choreography, sound, and lighting. Nick Picknally, the wonderful choreographer for the reproduction of Guys and Dolls, was originally a president and state board member of the Thespian Troupe in the early 2000s. Compared to past years, when the production would have their weekly Wednesday rehearsals to learn choreography, choreographers now use Google Classroom to post videos for students to learn different dances for the production. Additionally, they have more dance captains than in preceding years who are willing to help out anyone who needs to catch up during lunch and learn. They also have a lot of people working on sound and lighting who all put in multiple different efforts for the musical to play out successfully.
Set Design
As for the backstage, they have about the same number of people working backstage as onstage. Simultaneously, actors like Ronan Cullina and Olivia Brunozzi work on stage and help with set design by working on backdrops. The crew also rents backdrops, and many of the props are built and collected by the backstage crew and moved off and on the stage promptly during the production. All backstage students work with the adult stage managers and often work with Mr. Meder for sound, Mr. Arner for lights, and Mr. Wexler. The sound people work to put on and adjust mics throughout the show and make sure the levels and batteries of the mics are working. While the actors are the show’s stars, all of the backstage workers play a big part in ensuring the show runs smoothly.
