Making a Musical: The Actors Perspective

There are a lot of things that go into the making of a musical. You can very obviously see the actors on stage and think they are the most important part of it but there are many other parts to creating a musical. You can find the information on the crew’s side of things in my partner article by Elijah Mcneil “Making a Musical: The Crews perspective”.

I will be telling you about the actors’ view of things. This year we have a smaller cast. We have about 25 cast members in the show including 6 leads. We also have our Director Alexander Minter and his Assistant Director Isabel Van Wagner. We have Student Directors Zoe Ta and Mia Mastroianni.

Everyone involved has a different job. The director makes sure that we fulfill his image. He tells us where he wants us to stand for a scene and what changes he might want to the delivery of a line.

The assistant director can help to give a different perspective than the director so you can see more clearly what the audience will see.

The student directors write down the blocking for scenes and help if people can’t remember their lines. They also in the beginning help write down what set props and costume pieces the director says are needed so that it can be given to the crew director.

The actors are what everyone sees, they sing and dance and act. They need to project so the audience can hear them and sing well so the audience wants to see and show the audience the emotions of the scene.

When creating a high school musical the actors work for months in order to learn blocking, memorise lines and learn how to adequately show their emotions and movement on the stage so that it reads for the audience.

The process leading up to the show dates can vary depending on your role in the musical. The people playing the lead roles tend to have a more intensive schedule than the smaller roles.

The schedule is divided up into scenes. Each day you have a specifc set of scenes you will be doing. If you are not in that set of scene’s you do not need to attend that day.

During the rehearsal the director can show you what emotion you should be portraying in this moment as well teaching you the music and the blocking. The blocking consist’s of telling the actors where they need to stand and move to during the scene.

When you are in the cast it is a very different experience than being in the crew. You have to be ok with looking a little crazy sometimes. Depending on your role you could have to be barefooted or scream. You have to be ok with looking a bit silly in order to properly portray your character.

When you are the cast in high school musicals in specific you have to dedicate a lot of time to the musical as a lead you could end up staying after school everyday. And once you reach tech week (a week where everything starts coming together you get the set props and costumes aswell as mics and the lighting design) you have to stay at the school even later you could run as late as 10pm.

I asked a couple of actors to tell me something about their general experience in the musical Keira Neuberger, a Freshman who plays Red Riding Hood, gave me some advice that she would give to people in or hoping to be in musicals.

“There is always room to fix mistakes”she said “Nothings perfect, except trying” she wants people to know that messing up isnt the end of the world.

When asking Siria Vallucci, a Sophmore who plays Jack’s Mom she talks about struggling to come into her character. “I was upset about my character but once I embraced my character I started having fun”

She was unhappy when she first got the cast list but if you expect to be unhappy you will be. You have to let yourself have fun so that you can enjoy the experience and not focus on what could have been.

Later on I interviewed Alexander Minter, the director of the musical as well as the music director. When asked what the hardest part of being an actor in a musical is he told me “I think it’s bringing your own individuality to a story that has existed for so long”

I also asked him what his favorite part about being an actor in a musical is and he explained to me “The same as the hardest, Being able to tell a story that has been told forever in a different way.”

With him having a different perspective as director I asked him what the most important part about directing a musical was. He told me “Maintaining continuity. Making sure all of the parts of the production from lights to set to cast work well together.”

This also leads into the intensity of Tech week when everything is finally coming together and you learn things you have been doing for months just doesnt work anymore so you have to rework it.

I also asked a lead Haley Petrushun, a Junior playing The Baker’s Wife, for her opinion. I asked her what she thought the hardest part of being more specifically a lead in a musical was she told me “Lines, not only are you learning your own lines but everyone else is depending on your lines too and it is hard to remember them exactly, there’s a lot of paraphrasing”

When you have lines that influence how other characters react you have to make sure you don’t forget a line so that you don’t continue a mistake by answering someone’s line with something that doesnt make sense because they no longer line up with each other.
I also asked her about her favorite part of being in the cast. She explained to me that she likes to “See how other people grow into their characters and how I grow into my character. To see how it goes from a dry read in the beginning to a full production at the end”

It is a really cool experience to be able to see the process of creation and how people start to feel comfortable in their characters.

Being able to be in the cast of a musical is a very good experience to have. It is hard to get in and you don’t always get cast or if you do you don’t always get the role you want. But being able to see something grow and be proud of something you created is an experience that is very important and unique to the theater experience.