Actors spend weeks learning music, choreography, lines, and blocking to create a performance. Choreographers, set designers, lighting designers, and sound designers spend months creating a world in which the actors can better give their performance. An author and composer can spend years writing a vehicle for those actors to perform.
Why? Is it all for fun, or is there something more to be learned for both an actor and an audience?
At North Salem Middle/High School, we place value on the process of getting to performance. Our actors are beginning to learn that memorizing the music, choreography, and dialogue is just the beginning of their responsibility; their job is to tell a story. Anyone can recite a line, but it takes deeper understanding to bring an author’s words and a composer’s music to life.
Is there fun involved? Absolutely. There is fun in seeing our hard work pay off. There is joy in hearing applause and feeling the approval of an audience and fellow cast and crew members. The real joy happens in that moment when we know we’ve told the story and have affected not only the audience, but we’ve moved ourselves as well.
There’s a lot of nostalgia involved in the music of Footloose. On the surface, it’s a feel-good jukebox musical. The story, however, is anything but light. The themes of loss, denial, acceptance, and healing give this piece a depth that would seem at odds with the music. However, when we put it all together, the story and the music work together to tell the story.
We hope you enjoy the story our students are telling in the world that they've created.
Sincerely,
Doug
