{"id":25055,"date":"2024-11-02T21:28:03","date_gmt":"2024-11-03T03:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/beauty-and-the-beast-is-coming-to-montezuma-cortez-auditorium\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:09:13","slug":"beauty-and-the-beast-is-coming-to-montezuma-cortez-auditorium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/beauty-and-the-beast-is-coming-to-montezuma-cortez-auditorium\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Beauty and the Beast\u2019 is coming to Montezuma-Cortez auditorium"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Members
Members of the Montezuma-Cortez High School drama department prepare for its upcoming show Beauty and the Beast, which is set to open on Thursday. (Nicholaus Sandner\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Taking on a story that has been told and retold since 1740, Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s drama department promises that their Beauty<\/em> and<\/em> the<\/em> Beast<\/em> performance will put a special, musical spin on the classic beloved fairy tale.<\/p>\n

This love story will hit the stage on Thursday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium. The other dates for the show are Nov. 14, 15 and 16 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 8 and 16 at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n

According to drama department director Nicholaus Sandner, the production dates are a little more sporadic than normal to accommodate the band\u2019s competition that takes place opening weekend. Many members of the cast will be participating in the competition in Utah.<\/p>\n

The 120-person cast and crew includes members of the community as well as high school students, including 10 adults and 15 children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoy the adults and kids we have involved in our shows,\u201d Sandner told The<\/em> Journal<\/em>. \u201cThey\u2019re so helpful and fun. It\u2019s cool to have them involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Belle
Belle and the Beast, played by Xander Bennetts and Maecyn White, rehearse a scene. (Nicholaus Sandner\/Courtesy Photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The well-known Disney tale centers around a cursed prince turned beast, played by Xander Bennetts, and a young heroine who \u201cwants more than this provincial life.\u201d This heroine, Belle, is played by Maecyn White.<\/p>\n

The tale follows Belle\u2019s capture by the Beast while trying to rescue her father, their love story and the castle\u2019s quest to break the curse before time runs out. The story\u2019s villain and Belle\u2019s suitor, Gaston, is played by Shawn McAllister.<\/p>\n

Sandner said the cast and crew have been preparing for the show for about 10 weeks, and the time has been divided among dance rehearsals, singing rehearsals, acting rehearsals, tech meetings and more. Montezuma-Cortez Middle School\u2019s choir teacher Marla Sitton is in charge of the music.<\/p>\n

\"Gaston,
Gaston, played by Shawn McAllister, and Lefou, played by Cruz Hernandez, sing one of the songs on the play\u2019s set list.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Dance choreographer Nikki Crowley helped choreograph large ensemble dance numbers that Sandner said the audience will enjoy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really nice to have someone fresh doing the dance choreography for us,\u201d Sandner said.<\/p>\n

Sandner added that the set, which is a castle, is going to be slightly bigger than some of their past sets since it is stationary and won\u2019t have to sit on casters.<\/p>\n

Sandner also spoke of some of the more magical elements to the show, which include a \u201cmagic stained-glass window\u201d that changes throughout the course of the show to represent the iconic rose that declares how much time is left before the castle\u2019s curse is permanent.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not only does tech have some complicated elements to coordinate for the show, but the makeup is going to be more detailed than in past shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis show does have more makeup than we\u2019ve done before,\u201d Sandner said. \u201cThe Beast has some prosthetic makeup that takes a little while to go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the scenes Sandner said he\u2019s enjoyed seeing come together the most is the tavern scene where Gaston sings about how he will win Belle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a great dance number in it that involves all of the people in the tavern clinking mugs together in almost a kick line fashion, but clinking them together in a rhythm patter. That\u2019s really fun,\u201d Sandner said. \u201cI think that\u2019s a highlight that\u2019s different from the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another aspect that varies from the Disney film is the way the characters are portrayed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur portrayal of the characters when they\u2019re enchanted items is a little bit unique too,\u201d Sandner said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to seeing that come together with costumes and makeup and hair, hair styling and all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Purchasing tickets online hasn\u2019t been available for a while, but Sandner said that method is back up and running, and those looking to beat the lines and get their tickets ahead of time can do so.<\/p>\n

Tickets can be purchased online at mchsdrama.booktix.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

department promises a musical spin on retold tale<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,155,28,60,36,216,2401,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-musical-theater","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78785,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25055\/revisions\/78785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25055"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}