Urinetown comes to the McNary theater stage
By Gabe Grecny
The latest play from Mr. Myers and his drama class is a rather controversial piece that may upset a lot of people, appropriately called Urinetown. “It’s a terrible title, but it’s a great musical,” Mr. Myers, the Drama coach at McNary for the last 4 years, said. The name alone is obviously questionable, but it doesn’t stop there. The play, by Greg Kotis and music by Mark Hollman, is a musical tragicomedy that mocks and satirizes both left-wing and right-wing politics, as well as other musicals and Broadway in general. Urinetown is about a vaguely distant future in the midst of a 20 year drought. The water for public toilets is fiercely controlled by the not-so-evil mega-corporation, Urine Good Company, before the protagonist leads a revolution and wins the right for people to urinate with complete freedom, then they all learn a valuable lesson about not strictly rationing water during a multi-decade drought. The production has so far been going smoothly, with no serious problems, “Yet, it’s still pretty early, we haven’t even begun acting yet, it’s mostly been script reading,” Ryan Halvorson, one of the actors, added. The only problems so far are a shortage of multi-year drama students, which Mr. Myers considers a positive, as it will introduce more people to the world of drama, and that not many are experienced dancers. The actors playing the leads are definitely not in that category, both Ryan Halvorson, who plays the handsome, generic everyman protagonist Bobby Strong, and his naive romantic interest Hope Cladwell, played by Kendra Smith are experienced. Both are seniors and have participated in every year’s drama production. Mr. Myers has been planning this since last spring, six months ago. Rehearsals started August 27 and 28, both for auditions and to give the actors a chance to learn the music. Since then they’ve been practicing every day during 7th period and after-school Monday through Thursday to work on the dancing. Urinetown is a musical, and features about 20 songs, only 15 of which have singing, the rest are orchestral pieces which will be conducted by maestro Damian Berdakin, the orchestra teacher. All the actors really like the music in Urinetown, “It’s so upbeat and cheery, then you listen to the lyrics and realize they’re singing about killing people,” Mr. Myers said. Ryan and Kendra agreed with him, saying they thought the music was very funny, and the story was engaging. “Underneath the title theres a really good storyline,” Kendra said. According to Mr. Myers more than 80 people will be involved in some way with the production, only about half of them actually from the drama class. Of these, only 20 are actually actors, the rest working on set-building, costume designing, and other behind the scenes activities essential to making the production. Urinetown will play on November 7, 8, 9,14,15 and 16 in the school auditorium. Each starts at 7 PM and will last for approximately 2 hours. Tickets cost $8 each, with no student discounts. |
Photo by Brittany Pasco
Mr. Myers fixing the props for the stage. At the time, it was still under much needed preparation. |
To be or not to be?
By Rebecca Amerino
Hamlet is a classic story of compromise and tragedy. In any production, it is important to cast the right person. Hamlet is perhaps Shakespeare’s most popular play. “To be or not to be,” a quote most people hear all the time originated from this production. This story shows the importance of family, relationships, and making the decisions you may not want to make. A production all about the choices a young prince has to make when his uncle takes over the throne of his dead father and marries his mother. So on the final day of school last year, Gabe Elmore, a senior this year at McNary, was cast as Hamlet. Elmore is excited to be participating in his eighth theater production after “Urinetown” goes on stage this November. Although he may be a veteran of the stage, Elmore is still very nervous to be playing such an important main role. “Even the name is intimidating, isn’t it?” Elmore said, “He’s one of the smartest characters Hamlet has in general,” According to Elmore, it’s difficult to play Hamlet because of how much the character just thinks and doesn’t take action quickly. “No one wants to see a guy procrastinating on stage, there’s a fine line between him being insane and a genius,” Elmore said. Despite having his lines all summer, Elmore has not yet memorized the lines needed. “The longest it took to memorize my lines was ten weeks with an eight week rehearsal,” Elmore said. “It’s important to get background character parts before you get thrust into a major role.” In his first two productions, Elmore played a background character. It prepared him to play a bigger role, and got him more comfortable with acting in front of an audience. Elmore really enjoys the theater and being on stage. “It helps me grow as a person,” Elmore said, “If I didn’t act, what would I do? Gosh, I would probably be really into stream ecology or art history.” The auditions for the rest of the cast were to be held Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday the 17th, 18th, and 19th of September, but a second round is scheduled to happen the ninth and tenth of October to give more people an opportunity to try out. “This is the first year I’ve done auditions this fast in the school year,” said Mr. Dallas Myers, McNary theater production teacher and director. “Almost everyone will be playing two parts,” Myers said. Only Hamlet, King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, and the maiden Ophelia will not be playing multiple parts. Script modification is huge in this production. With a script meant for four hours, Hamlet had to be cut in half. |
Photo by: Brandi Urban
Gabe Elmore trying to get into his character Hamlet. Hamlet is the Shakespeare play this year and will be starring Gabe Elmore as Hamlet |