Every year students of Greenwood Middle/High School look forward to auditioning and hopefully getting the part they want in the yearly musical. Normally, the new musical is announced on the very first day of the school year but this year is different. Many families waited in anticipation for the news of whether or not a musical would be happening this year. November came and there was still no news of a musical.
Finally, on November 11th the Greenwood Theater Instagram page posted the name of the musical we would be doing. “Little Shop of Horrors” was hopefully going to be the next 2021 musical. Students were told to keep watch for updates and emails with more information.
It was decided that auditions would be over a video, then submitted to the directors for evaluation. A month later, all the students that submitted audition videos met with the directors over Zoom to talk about possibilities for this year’s musical. Many ideas were being taken into consideration but the conclusion was made that it wouldn’t be possible to have a musical this year. Many students and their families were very disappointed. The entire district looks forward to having a musical each year. But, it would just be too risky to have all those people packed into the theater at showtime and singing and dancing with a mask would be a challenge. Most of the students understood why there was no other option than just to cancel the musical altogether. One student who had participated in last year’s musical said, “I was upset especially since we have had so much amazing talent the year before.” Another student said, “It was kind of a relief because I didn’t have to devote so much time into practices every day.”
During the month of December the directors discussed having the students get together in small groups so that they would still be able to have fun despite not performing a musical. On January 4th, a kickoff meeting was held to discuss the small groups getting together and schedule a time to meet. These thirty minute long meetings were called “workshops.” In these workshops two to five students would meet to practice their vocals. The students could pick a song that they would like to sing and take time to practice it in a small group. Some students chose to sing songs from “Little Shop of Horrors” and others chose songs from popular musicals such as “Dear Evan Hansen” and “Hamilton”. The students also had the opportunity to meet for an hour after school on Fridays with Mrs. Anstine to practice dancing. During all the workshops students were six feet apart and wearing masks at all times. Workshops went on for seven weeks throughout January and February and the students had a great time just being together for thirty minutes. The directors called this “a year of growth and opportunity”. They hope that the students will see improvement in their singing and dancing for an even better musical next year.
Pictured above, last year's cast and crew in "Matilda"