Musicals were on shaky ground at Bellwood-Antis for some years in the early 2020s. COVID shut down plays at B-A for two years, and later musical director Beth Hull left Bellwood to teach at her home school of Northern Bedford.
Student interest began to wane slightly.
Two people helped change that.
Director Molly Burns stepped up and completely revived musical scene with the help of B-A choral director David Logue. Since their involvement began four years ago, the musicals have been increasing in difficulty and student performance. Two years the theater department staged “Bye-Bye Birdie,” last year it was “Shrek the Musical,” and this year Bellwood plans to do the ambitious musical “Little Shop of Horrors”.
“Little Shop of Horrors” is a horror comedy rock musical. The story follows a flower shop worker that raises a plant that feeds on human flesh and blood.
The auditions for the musical are set to begin in just two weeks.
Students can audition on October 14 between 3:00-5:00pm, October 15 between 6:00-8:00pm and on October 16 for Call Backs. Any student from 7th through 12th grade can try out.
Mr. Logue said there is an exhaustive process involved in selecting a school musical.
“The Director and I meet up and go through a long list of musicals- we narrow down the options and select from a small list,” Mr. Logue said. “The narrowing down process includes looking at the number of students we believe would be interested in addition to the total number of students, boys and girls we think would be involved to best fit student/community needs.”
If you are trying out for a main part, you should prepare 16-32 bars of music that you feel best represents your voice.
Not trying out for a main part? You will be asked to sing something you know, like ABC’s or Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star.
Mr. Logue said he has many goals for this year’s musical.
“The director and I are looking to teach students yet another style of musical, different from previous years,” he said. “We look forward to students being given the best opportunity they have to be successful. ”
Mr. Logue credited B-A students for helping to revive the popularity of musicals, saying they wanted to be a part of something larger than themselves.
“Both the Director and I deeply believe in creating the space where students can experience both of these things,” he said. “From a personal side, I am appreciative, that students gave the ‘new’ chorus teacher a chance!”
The success has created a musical program that expects success.
“”We want to sell enough tickets to sell out all three nights and have loads of different people be Issac Nominees,” said senior Colin Matthews.
