As some may know, I was involved in Smithers secondary school’s musical theatre performance of “Fame!”
Beginning last September, the entire cast met every Monday and Wednesday to learn choreography and block out various scenes.
The principal actors had additional rehearsals to ensure everything came together perfectly.
Many student and parent volunteers spent hours upon hours in the Della Herman Theatre, piecing together the set, painting every brick on every wall, and even the surface of the stage.
Not one detail was out of place.
The show would not have been possible without the tremendous efforts of Hans Saefkow, Heather Lytle, and Mike Doogan-Smith, the three SSS teachers who began their quest for fame last summer.
The hard work of every student involved in the show also contributed to our success.
All of our hard work paid off during our two performance weekends, April 20 − 21 and 27− 28.
The opening weekend brought with it the adrenaline of performing in front of a live audience, a full house no less and both performances that received standing ovations.
During the April 21 show, the cast was faced with a sticky situation.
Principal actor Kaleb Gorbahn, fractured his thumb during a dance number late in act one.
At the time, we weren’t aware of the severity of his injury.After icing, taking ibuprofen, and taping it up, he was back out on stage. For the duration of the show he performed as if he hadn’t been injured.
He even executed the huge ballet lift with me in the opening number of the second act.
As the old adage says, “the show must go on!”
After the second show, it was brought to everyone’s attention that Kaleb’s thumb was indeed fractured, a fact supported by the large cast he was sporting. Some minor details had to be re-worked, but the majority of the choreography remained the way it was. The audience for the second weekend of shows would have never known anything had been changed at all, if I wasn’t giving this insight into the back-stage world of a production the size of our “Fame!”
I can’t give away all of our secrets, however.
For those who were fortunate enough to watch this amazing production, I hope the show was worth the price of admission!
For those in the community who didn’t buy their tickets in time (they sold out quickly), let this be a lesson for the next time SSS puts on a musical production – which, just a heads up, will be in 2014 – make sure you’re sitting in the audience; I know I will be.
Katelynn Bolster is a student at Smithers secondary school and a columnist for The Interior News.