FHS students strike up the band for Music Man
The performances, taking place 7 p.m., Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 11-13, in Vickie B. Wells Auditorium at FHS, 11237 Kingston Pike, are open to the public.
“We would love for the public to come,” said Dr. Tony Wooley, FHS theater teacher and director of the production. “One of the things we try to do is create a sense of community, and we want our shows to be welcoming and inviting for all ages.
“This show, particularly, is very family friendly, so we would love to have families and young folks who are interested in theater, as well as some of our more experienced citizens who also have free time and a love for theater, to come and watch and see the kids perform because they truly are incredible,” he said. “These kids are outstanding.
“It’s an excellent, quality show that these kids are able to give to their audience,” Wooley said.
Tickets are $20 per person, and those interested in attending all three nights can purchase a discounted run-of-the-show pass for $50, which covers all three nights. They are available at the door, online and on Facebook.
Playing the lead characters will be Colin Parrish as the title character, Professor Harold Hill, a charismatic con man, and Julia Tiernan as Marion Paroo, the town’s stern librarian and piano teacher. They make up a cast of 40 — from seniors, juniors and sophomores — and tech crew of about 15 students. There also is a pit band of 15 students.
“That’s one of the things I’m very proud of,” Wooley said. “I feel like every role that I could give a high school kid I want to give it to a high school kid because at the end of the day, is an institution of learning.
“The entirety of the set was built by high schoolers. Most of the pit band is high schoolers,” he said. “It is my goal every year to have a fully high school pit band; but because of scheduling conflicts, work conflicts and other obligations, I can’t always fill spots with high schoolers,” he said. “We do fill spots with professional musicians.”
Additionally, the vocal director is Dr. Sara Beth Carroll; pit band conductor is Kirstine Buchanan; sound design is Colton Berg; and light design is Matt Cogburn.
Choosing a production is “always a team effort,” Wooley said. “Unfortunately the choir teacher (Mitchell Moore), who helped us choose (the musical) took a new placement for this year, so he’s not with us, but along with the choreographer, Bria Bannister, and the other choir teacher, Kirstine Buchanan, (and Moore), the four of us picked the show together.”
“Last year’s show was ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’,” Wooley said. “It was very outside of the box, very interpretive. We took a lot of liberties and pushed the kids’ boundaries.
“If they’re going to be with me four years, I would like them to experience different show types,” he said. “The seniors who are with me now, they started in ‘Mama Mia.’ We did ‘Chicago,’ which was very dark. We did ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’, so the one thing they had not done yet was a golden Broadway standard musical.
“That led us to a classic show,” he said.
Wooley recalled when he was a senior in high school, he had the opportunity to play Harold Hill, the title character in the musical.
“Before Mitchell Moore left (the end of last year), he was kind of thinking this year was going to be his last year,” Wooley said.
At the same time, the choreographer is going back to school and leaving, “so we all had ties to ‘The Music Man,’ so since we were breaking the team up, we saw it as we really saw this (musical), as it fits in the golden Broadway era and we should put on ‘The Music Man’ as our final show with the directorial team we had,” he said.
