Carlmont students and staff are kicking off the spring semester by ramping up preparations for the school musical, “Anything Goes.”
With the holiday season over and opening night approaching quickly, student actors at Carlmont have more on their minds than just schoolwork. As rehearsals become longer and more demanding, students like Carlmont senior Samantha Roberts are forced to carve out every available moment to keep up with assignments.
“A lot of times, I’ll do my homework at rehearsal whenever I’m not in scenes, or I’ll do my schoolwork during seventh period. Not having a seventh is really helpful because I’m able to get my work done,” Roberts said.
Managing rehearsals alongside schoolwork and other activities has challenged some students’ time-management skills, including Carlmont senior Michelle Ahl.
“I have a lot of extracurriculars, so it’s been very busy, but now that it’s senior year and college applications are done, it’s a lot better,” Ahl said. “But when college applications were happening, it was really hard to manage my time.”
With nearly 50 students in the cast, rehearsals tend to take up a significant portion of their time. Carlmont drama teacher Elizabeth Berg offered a closer look at what happens during a typical rehearsal in the musical’s final stages of preparation.
“For the last three weeks, we do run-throughs. The full cast is called, and we’re starting to implement the crew and orchestra. So those last three weeks are the most intense, and rehearsals go a little later,” Berg said. “We get to a point where we’re running the show in show conditions, which means we’re running it as if we have an audience.”
The musical will run for three performances from Jan. 29 to Feb. 1, giving students the opportunity to finally showcase the work they’ve put in these last months of rehearsal.
Aside from the intensive rehearsal schedule, the decision to stage “Anything Goes” plays a major role in shaping the preparation process, with the performance style and the variety of roles in the musical being key factors in the decision.
“The show is a different style than the ones we’ve done for the last few years, and I was just really excited about all of the different roles that it offered and the opportunities for ensemble and featured characters,” Berg said. “It seemed like it would be a blast to work on and would provide great opportunities for our students.”
The fast-paced style and variety of roles in “Anything Goes” have challenged the cast in various ways, but they embrace every rehearsal, building both skill and community.
“Being able to come to rehearsal every day, seeing all my friends and watching parts of the show that I haven’t seen, is really fun,” Roberts said. “I love theater. I love acting. But I also really love all of the people that are here that I do it with.”
