{"id":30878,"date":"2023-11-02T16:05:13","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T22:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-middle-school-to-present-the-play-footloose-nov-3-and-4\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:28:16","slug":"montezuma-cortez-middle-school-to-present-the-play-footloose-nov-3-and-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-middle-school-to-present-the-play-footloose-nov-3-and-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez Middle School to present the play \u2018Footloose\u2019 Nov. 3 and 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cortez
Cortez Middle School, which has been preparing for their show \u201cFootloose\u201d for more than 10 weeks, will open on Friday, Nov. 3. (Marla Sitton\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Montezuma-Cortez Middle School\u2019s theater and choral departments will present \u201cFootloose\u201d this weekend.<\/p>\n

The play will take place at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 3 and at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4 in CMS\u2019s main gym.<\/p>\n

The play follows a teenager named Ren McCormack, played by Costner Hernandez, and his friends Willard, Shaw, Ariel and Rusty, who set out to make changes in a town where dancing and many forms of music have been banned after a tragedy.<\/p>\n

\"Students
Students rehearse in preparation for their who on Nov. 3 and 4. Left to right: Costner Hernandez as Ren, Logan Tamminga as Garvin, Preston Tanner as Jeter, Landon Yarbrough as Bickle and Devin Aster as Willard. (Marla Sitton\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWillard, Ren, Shaw, Ariel and Rusty lead a talented group of rock stars and deliver a powerful message of embracing change, respecting our communities and dancing to your own beat,\u201d said theater director Angela Gabardi.<\/p>\n

The production features many high-energy song and dance numbers by Hernandez with his fellow co-stars Grace Noyes as Ariel, Devin Aster as Willard and Addalynn Nielson as Rusty and the many other cast members that are made up of students in grades six through eight.<\/p>\n

This is a high-energy, emotional show with lots of love and humor,\u201d Gabardi said.<\/p>\n

\"Costner
Costner Hernandez (left), who plays Ren, and Grace Noyes, who plays Ariel, rehearse Wednesday for their shows Friday and Saturday. (Marla Sitton\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In total, Gabardi and choir teacher Marla Sitton said there are 75 students who are part of the cast and crew, and they have been preparing for this show for a little over 10 weeks.<\/p>\n

According to Gabardi and Sitton, the students have put in more than 75 hours of work in rehearsals, set days, dance calls and music intensives.<\/p>\n

This is the ninth year putting on a musical in the middle school, and \u201cFootloose\u201d will be added to the lengthy list of musicals that include \u201cPirates of Penzance,\u201d \u201cAdventures of a Comic Book Artist,\u201d \u201cInto the Woods Jr.,\u201d \u201cEmma! A Pop Musical,\u201d \u201cSingin\u2019 in the Rain Jr.,\u201d \u201cOliver Jr.,\u201d \u201cWilly Wonka Jr.\u201d and \u201cA Musical Variety.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCome out and support the arts at MCMS and see kids doing something great,\u201d Sitton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great chance to see the creativity and talent of our wonderful youths,\u201d Gabardi added. \u201cThese epic humans have put in so much time, dedication, teamwork, passion and creativity. They truly are delightful and wonderful. This is a beloved story and our students have honored that legacy while adding their own ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

General admission is $10 per ticket and non-CMS students and seniors aged 65 and older can purchase tickets for $6.<\/p>\n

MCMS staff, MCMS students, MCHS drama students and children two years old and younger will have free entry.<\/p>\n

Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at mchsdrama.booktix.com.<\/p>\n

Sitton thanked supporters for their encouragement throughout the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a challenging process with so many kids, but we are very grateful to the help and support of our parental units and staff and administration,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

musical features over 70 CMS students as cast and crew <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,147,155,28,60,29,910],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-cortez-middle-school","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-theatre"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30878","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=30878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81235,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30878\/revisions\/81235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30878"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}