Every spring, students and families from around the area gather to spend a few hours at Central Auditorium enjoying DHS’s spring musical. Most people in the audience enjoy watching these shows, but rarely understand how much work the cast and crew put into the production. This year’s production is of the musical “Fame”. After the casts’ Ren Fair production, auditions took place and rehearsals got into full swing, but the time commitment of being in the show may have thrown some of the newer cast members off guard.
Junior Pierce Cesaretti is participating in the spring musical for the first time this year. After watching the drama club perform “Hairspray” in the spring of 2012, Cesaretti wanted to be involved with the production.
“I was pretty surprise by how vigorous the rehearsals are,” Cesaretti said. “We have rehearsals Monday through Wednesday, and the leads have rehearsal every weekday. Also if we have a weekend practice they’re like 10 hours long.”
Junior Andrew Brookens is also a new member of the “Fame” cast. Having never been in any sort of production before, he was surprised when he was given one of the lead roles. Although it is a great honor and experience to be a major role in the show, it also means that there is a lot more work involved.
“I was a little overwhelmed at first by all the rehearsals, but it takes a lot of work especially since the show is in like two months,” Brookens said.
Leads meet every day of the school week to work on singing, dancing, and running lines. Since the show is right around the corner, these vigorous rehearsals are necessary.
Senior Molly Rossman has been involved in numerous shows at DHS during her time in the drama program. She took part in the fall musical, School House Rock, and she also took part in the Ren Fair dance for Fame. Although she really enjoys being involved, Rossman has made the decision to not take part in the spring musical.
“I love the show process but I really wanted to focus on my art and my other classes this year, “Rossman said. “It was more important to me to get good grades for my senior year versus trying to handle that schedule.”
The rehearsals for Fame can make it very difficult to balance personal life, school work and a job if a student has one. The constant and vigorous rehearsal can become stressful and overwhelming if someone also wants to focus on school or another extracurricular, such as Rossman and her art work.
As the date of the final performance creeps closer, the rehearsals become even more intense. The two weeks before the performance, dubbed “hell week”, are the most stressful weeks that the cast experiences.
“During ‘hell week’ we have practice from right after school until 10 o’ clock at night until the day we perform and that lasts for two weeks,” Cesaretti said.
Being constantly involved in a rehearsal from the minute you get out of school to late in the evening makes it extremely difficult to fit in homework. This can be harmful to students due to the lack of sleep and great stress in an attempt to get all of their work done. It isn’t rare that students will just not do their homework.
Students who have been in prior shows can handle this stress better than people who don’t know what to expect with these rehearsals. Junior Abby Drumright is a lead in this year’s spring production, she also had a lead in “Hairspray”, last spring.
“Having done it before, I know that it is worth it in the end,” Drumright said. “When you’re on stage after a performance you just feel so proud of all the work you’ve put in.”
Although there is a lot of work and time put into the final production of the spring musical, it is always worth it in the end. Those three nights of performing feel so rewarding in the end that all of the work put in seems to be for a great cause.
