Jenny Levine
Reporter
Dancers have been tapping and vocalists have been singing their hearts out in preparation for the upcoming play. But this is not practice for a musical, this is rehearsal for the upperclassmen fall drama, “Stepping Out”.
“People will think if there is singing and dancing it can’t be a play.” said senior Rachel Guth, who will be playing Mavis. “ A musical is where actors can’t express their emotions through words so they sing and dance, while in Stepping Out it’s used as a plot point.”
Junior Elizabeth Koennecke, who will be playing Maxine, agreed. “A musical has songs because once you can’t act anymore you sing, once you can’t sing anymore you dance, it’s a progression.”
The play revolves around a group of novice dancers in a tap dance class. “The people that play the students in the class have to dance as their character would dance. It’s really interesting to see these great dancers dumb it down for the role,” Rachel said.
As the play progresses, the characters’ tap talents improve. “Every Wednesday we have a tap workshop. Since we are upperclassmen we have done tap shows, so we are aware of how to tap, but it’s all about catching up as quickly as you can,” Rachel said.
In order to better understand their characters, the cast did some of their own research before practice started.“We had to look up our characters and find their horoscope and color that best described them, so that color we picked is our costume color scheme,” Rachel said.
Elizabeth said that this research was helpful to her acting. “Now I have this great understanding of my character that I really hope to bring to the show.”
Members of the cast are also actively involved in backstage duties.“The crew’s job is to make the play look like magic,” senior and stage manager Rachael Mathis said. “This play occurs in a span of eight months, so it’s the crew’s job to make the lighting change in according to the season and time of day. It’s also the crew’s job to change the set and bring out another location.”
“For this show the audience are sitting on the stage, so our stage is confined to about a third of what is normally the size. It’s our job to build a stage on a stage,” Rachael said.
Senior Emily Chalon said that this different stage set-up changes the actor’s methods. “You don’t have what actors call the fourth wall which is where you are suppose to play out to, you’re much closer to the audience so you try not to get freaked by the stares,” she said.
“We worked really hard on the play, everyone put a lot of time into it,” Elizabeth said. “There are serious moments, it’s heartfelt, it’s a crowdpleaser but it’ll make you think too.”
You can buy tickets online here.
