By Brett McMahon
This year’s Spring Musical at St. Joseph-Ogden High School will be the first in the school’s new auditorium. The space was completed and hosted its first event just over a month ago and Drama leader Chandler Dalton had to take the renovations into account when choosing this year’s play.
Dalton explains why she chose Disney’s Descendants, “We are doing Disney’s Descendants which is a stage adaptation of the 2015 Disney Channel Original Movie. I chose it because the kids wanted to do Beauty and the Beast but we didn’t know the timeline of the auditorium renovation and this has characters from Beauty and the Beast but was much more adaptable if the auditorium wasn’t going to be done in time.”
Another first for Dalton is heading a Disney musical. Back in 2020, she planned for a production of Freaky Friday, but the show was scrapped due to the pandemic. Of the 29 students taking part in Descendants, nine of them will be doing their first musical. Though not her first musical, Al Pearman, who plays Ben, is taking on her first major role. She took part in last fall’s musical, but the senior came into rehearsals in January showing a strong desire for the part.
Another stand-out among the cast for Dalton is Bryce Collins, who takes on the role of Doug. “Bryce Collins plays Doug. Something that really stands out about Bryce is that he has never seen the movie. Still to this day, he has not seen the movie and he brings his own flare to the character and isn’t trying to act like the movie character.”
Dalton is also proud of how the 19 seniors are carrying the show in terms of leadership and guidance. Having led productions since 2017, she credits having a younger sister in high school for helping her relate to the students. Her hope is that the students have fun with the production and are proud of the work they put into it.
The new auditorium will afford not only a larger stage, but also the use of more technology in the play. We have all new technology and it has really helped our show and our program. Our lights have been one of the biggest upgrades and those will be featured and all of the cool effects and colors will be highlighted,” says Dalton. She adds, “We have a Broadway-level light board that allows us to do anything we could imagine. Our stage doubled in size so we have more space to move around and to have a bigger set.”
Performances are set for April 14-15 at 7pm and April 16 at 2pm at the SJO Grade School. Tickets are available at the school office for $7 for adults, $6 for students and $5 for seniors and kids under 12. At the door, they will cost $1 more in each category. For photos and more, check out the SSJO Drama page on Facebook or their Instagram SJOFinearts.
