Main men in The Music Man enjoy the pressure
The Music Man opens tonight, and there are a lot guys who have main parts in this production.
Revel Southwell, Lucas Tuggy, and Aaron Mogle are some of the lead men in The Music Man.
Other lead men include Randy Zitterbart and Luke Hollingshead. Revel, Aaron and Lucas found time in their busy schedules to talk to the BluePrint about their roles in the production.
Revel is the main character who plays “Professor Harold Hill,” your stereotypical traveling con-man.
Revel enjoys having a main role because it’s fun.
“It’s everything you work for. It can be stressful and a pain, but it’ll all pay off opening night,” said Revel.
Lucas plays Marcellus Washburn. To Lucas having a main role is different than being in the ensemble.
“Being a main role requires much more dedication and time at and away from practice,” he said. “Combine it with track and it can make it a stressful couple of months.”
Aaron Mogle plays two parts: Charlie Cowell and Anvil Salesman.
“Having a main role is fun, but there is a lot of pressure. It’s a lot different from pushing Randy around in a wheelchair,” said Mogle, who last year was an ensemble performer in Annie, seen often pushing around Randy Zitterbart, who played FDR.
Being a main character requires a lot of preparation to perfect your role.
Revel prepares for his role by watching a bunch of different versions and then mixing up all of them.
“I play around with things too, to get different techniques,” said Revel.
Lucas prepares for his role by spending time memorizing his lines at home and practicing the choreography.
Aaron prepares for his role by going his scene in his head to try to think of ways his character would respond.
Memorizing your lines for a lead part can be hard and take some time to get it down.
“The everyday distraction of life are a real setback,” said Revel.
Lucas has spent a while on memorizing his lines, but he sometimes still looks over his lines and changes little things about his character.
Time commitment, responsibility and memorizing can be a challenge to someone with a main role.
“Definitely the hardest thing would be the time commitment. Juggling track, Music Man, and a job can call for some stressful schedules,” said Lucas.
“Memorizing the details of when and where I should go while on stage can be difficult,” said Mogle.
For Revel it is responsibility.
“On top of lines and everything, it’s really like your job to set an example for the younger kids in it,” said Revel.