“For the entire summer, I practiced my belting. I practiced learning every song.” Senior Mikaela Tymony said. “Mostly, I practiced my diction, and just tried to be more expressive.”
Tymony, cast as Lady Larken in this year’s musical, worked vigorously over the summer for her role.
“We all have our own ideas of what the characters should be,” Director Nick Franssen said, “And the type of personalities that we think would be good for this show.”
The male lead of the show, Senior Mason Daniel, previously played Drekko Mayfly in the play “Wizards and Wands.”
“I didn’t have a lead in the musical lead last year,” Daniel said, “But I had a lead in the play.”
The cast anticipates which aspects of the show will come together the best, including specific songs, dance numbers, and scenes.
“I think the best part is going to be the Spanish panic, which we haven’t worked on yet.” Tymony said. “It’s not actually a song, it’s a dance. But I think with our choreographer now, it’s going to be one of our big numbers.”
Unlike previous years, this year’s musical allows eighth graders to participate. The board cast eighth grader Jack Ebert as the Jester. Ebert participated in about 11 shows over the course of four years through the Derby children’s theater.
“It feels normal, but there’s a lot less people than I’m used to.” Ebert said “It’s a smaller cast than what I have done in the past.”
Franssen sees the importance of incorporating the middle school into the high school theatre department.
“I was inspired by eighth grade weights. They would come up here in the mornings, and that’s a really cool program to be able to get the kids excited and involved.” Franssen said “They were up here working with the high schoolers before they got to the high school, so that they feel like they have a home, they are part of something already”
Including the eighth graders in the musical also helps them to develop their acting skills quicker. And helps out the theatre program in the long run, especially for the Jesters, the annual awards Music Theatre Wichita presents.
“We have wonderful performers at the high school level, but I only see them for four years, and there is no theater department at the Middle School.” Franssen said. “ So it seems kind of unfair, as we participate in things like the Jesters, where these kids are going to middle schools that have middle school performing arts.”
