'The Music Man' at Drury High features high school drama students, athletes and musicians providing live accompaniment as well as elementary school students.
Football players are joining high school drama students as well as budding elementary school thespians on stage this week for Drury High School's production of 'The Music Man.'
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — When is a high school musical performance not just a regular high school musical performance?
When it's Drury High School's presentation of "The Music Man," stage directed by a student from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, assisted with costumes and props by North Adams City Hall, and joined on stage by six North Adams elementary school students and other Drury students not typically affiliated with the theater department, like the school's marching band.
"We tried a new initiative this year," Kate Caton, the director of newly renamed Drury Stage Company, which has replaced the former Drury Drama Team. "It's truly a community effort."
As she watched one of the last dress rehearsals before the show's opening on Thursday, Dec. 4, Caton said since coming to Drury two years ago she had noticed that many wonderful things happening there were not being noticed by the community, and vice versa. And she wanted to change that.
"It was a good way to get the community involved in what we are doing," she said. "So much of what we're doing is separate and apart."
When she pitched the idea to the administration at Drury, Caton said she received an enthusiastic response.
"It was just 'yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,' " she said. With the school's blessing, she was able to shift the previous structure of the performances only involving students in a drama class or part of the once-a-week after school program. She invited anyone in the school to try out.
"I wanted to make it comparable to other schools," she said, including Mount Greylock Regional High School, which has open auditions for its performances and where she is the musical director of the annual spring musical there. "There's a bunch of students who have never been in a show before. But it doesn't matter. Everybody is welcome."
Because of that policy, she ended up with the interesting dichotomy of athletes singing and dancing on stage.
"I've got football players on the stage, so I got to share the sports and theater," she said. "I was very fortunate to be able to tap into that talent pool."
Even though involving people outside of Drury did present challenges - such as rehearsals that started at 2 p.m. at Drury when the elementary school students don't get out of school until 3 p.m. - Caton said the experiment has been a success.
"It's been wonderful," she said. "We're looking at continuing this process."
The community is invited to see the outcome of that process with shows at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Dec. 4-6, and at a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday, Dec. 6. Tickets will be $8 for the general public, and $5 for students and senior citizens; tickets will be available at the door.
The Tony Award-winning musical "The Music Man" was written by Meredith Willson and made its debut in Broadway in 1957. Among its five Tony Awards was “Best Musical.” The Music Man depicts the story of a Harold Hill, a con-man (played by Nick Buchard), who arrives in a small town in Iowa, promising to make a group of boys into a marching band. However, he has no intention of fulfilling these promises. When Marian the librarian (played by Alex Bernard) falls for him, he risks exposing his lies. The musical will feature hit songs such as "(Ya Got) Trouble," "Seventy-Six Trombones" and "Shipoopi."
As a musical, there will be live musical accompaniment, directed by Chris Caproni. Caproni said he is proud of how hard the young musicians have worked to prepare the show.
"For the students, it's a lot of music," he said, adding that some of the students play multiple instruments during the show. "It's really a great challenge for the kids. It's a fun musical."
And because it's a musical about music, it's only fitting that the grand finale should fill the theater with music. Without spoiling the ending, Caton said it's not something to be missed.
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