By Mia Khan, Staff Writer
Mills High School welcomes a new spring musical production of Footloose. Footloose, a musical drama, tells the story of a small town in the Midwest dealing with a ban on dancing after a tragedy involving young people. An inspiring musical with a captivating storyline, it’s sure to entice the audience and leave everyone on the edge of their seats. Preparations have already begun, with dance rehearsals on Mondays and Wednesdays, vocal music on Tuesdays, band and blocking on Thursdays and set building will be on Saturdays in March.
To see it happen for myself, I went to see a typical vocal rehearsal day for Footloose. Everybody started off with a routine of vocal warmups, the routine strict and clear. Everyone knew what part to sing and performed naturally. Mr. G occasionally paused the routine in order to instruct them on improving whatever sounded off and to have them practice and fix the critiques he gave. The band room was never quiet for a moment. Along with the singing and persistent efforts of the students, they also made room for personal amusement. Impromptu dance sessions during and between songs brought laughter and smiles to all the performers.
Dance rehearsals are led by choreographer Zoe Swenson Graham. She starts everyone off with dancing warm ups and resumes practice from the previous act choreography. Split up into groups throughout the different dances, each dancer gets a focus with the choreographer to improve their moves.
The VAPA Department, including Music, Drama, and Visual Arts will collaborate with the Orchestra, acting, stage crew, Dance, and scenery to make this musical successful. See Mr. Hudelson, if you’re interested in stage crew, consisting of lighting, mic, and sound team, costumes, and makeup, starting in early March!
The cast features Taylor Le as Ariel, Maddy Schoening as Rusty, Ben Garcia as Rev. Shaw Moore, Shree Singh as Vi Moore, Jeremy Garcia as Ren, and Erik Headley as Willard. Actors will rehearse after school for 10 weeks before the show, presenting for two weekends in April from the 15th-23rd. Shows are 7pm on Fridays and Saturdays, with 2pm matinees on both Saturdays too. Tickets are free for all Mills students and $10 for adults.
The production preparations are off to a successful start and the drama department is excited to shine in the spotlight again and be supported by the attending Mills community. Mr. Hudelson, head of the drama production says, “Rehearsals are going well and this cast is super talented. You won’t want to miss this production!”
