High school is a popular place to try new things and experience different activities through clubs and organizations as students grow up. Towards the beginning of the year, many DHS students in the drama department anticipated the upcoming production of the spring musical, Fame. Meanwhile, students who were more frequently involved in sports and other clubs gave in to their interest in the production and tried out for the musical as well.
“Being my senior year I was like, ‘why not’?” chorus member, senior Megan Flint said. “And I love dancing, so even though I can’t sing at all I decided it’d be a good time because it was something new.”
Other students, like junior Mallory Fogus, who played Grace Lamb, looked into the musical to expand her variety of extracurricular activities, but stayed because of the people involved.
“Well first of all I just wanted to build my resume for college and put other activities than sports on it,” Fogus said. “But then when we did RenFair I met all the people and the people just made me want to do it more.”
Senior Billy Schuette, who played Goodman King, would agree with Fogus on enjoying the social aspect of the musical.
“I think as a whole what I drew positively from the musical was the fact that I got to meet a lot of new people and to talk to people I normally would not have gotten the chance to,” Schuette said. “And I think that’s valuable.”
The actual process of putting the play together requires a large amount of work and with that, comes time commitment.
“I knew it was going to be a lot of work but it was a lot more intense than I thought it would be,” Fogus said. “We put in 15 hours a week even before [the last] week came. So it was a lot more intense than I expected.”
Spending so much time on an activity that is being tried for the first time was overwhelming to many of these first-time students, but worth it in the end.
“It’s definitely worth it,” junior Andrew Brookens, who played Joe Vegas said. “It’s a big commitment and you’ve got to put a lot of heart in it and a lot of work, but it pays off in the end.”
The set building, the dance practices, the running of lines and rehearsals reached their purpose when “Fame” was performed at the Central Auditorium on May 9, 10 and 11. After all of the hard work and time spent on the musical over the last three months, the newly-involved DHS drama department students still found things to take from the experience, moving forward.
“It’s cliché, but you really make so many new friends and you know that the friendships will last,” Fogus said. “Working for three months and then all of a sudden all your hard work going into three days. Learning how to work so hard for something so short is crazy.”
Schuette also gained a new perspective on the process of putting on a musical.
“I would have to say it was a lot different than I expected it to be,” Schuette said. “It was a lot more work than I thought it was going to be, and I have gained a lot more respect for the whole process of putting on musicals.”
Brookens even gained a personal change from his experience in the drama department for the first time.
“It was a lot more fun than I expected, actually,” Brookens said. “I definitely gained confidence. I never thought that I would be able to do something as erratic as that, I guess.”
Overall, students were glad that they took the chance and tried out for the musical and went through with the process, even through all the hard work.
“It was awesome,” Fogus said. “It was probably one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done, it was really cool.”
