Level Blue on the state\u2019s COVID-19 dial<\/a> earlier this month enabled the department to perform indoors at its own auditorium. Students were more than happy to take advantage of the auditorium\u2019s lighting capabilities and larger stage.<\/p>\n\u201cIt gave us more range to explore what we can do with our ideas,\u201d said senior Mia Jeremiah.<\/p>\n
The idea for the musical came from an improvisational role-playing exercise the students took part in where they created their own characters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe pick these characters and then just sort of go and see where it ends up,\u201d said senior Jadon Cruzan.<\/p>\n
Different attributes from all the students\u2019 improv characters were then fused into the musical\u2019s main characters.<\/p>\n
Students looked to the folktales of the British Isles for inspiration.<\/p>\n
Senior Joseph Tevault was already curious about the subject matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always interested in monsters, mythology and folktales like that,\u201d Tevault said. \u201cSo that was kind of my piece of writing the script.\u201d<\/p>\n
Influences also came from a range of other sources, including Homer\u2019s epic poem \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d the \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d films and \u201cThe Old Man and the Old Moon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plenty of legwork went into creating the play\u2019s final 140-page script.<\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly want to voice how impressed I am with the students for stepping up and doing something as massive as this,\u201d Sandner said. \u201cI mean, writing a play is not something every person has done. To write a play as a group and try and keep that singular voice moving through, they\u2019ve done a phenomenal job.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the music, Sandner created a playlist with numerous sea shanties. Cruzan picked the ones that would work best in the play, then worked with Choir Teacher Marla Sitton on the harmonies.<\/p>\n
Some of the songs were already difficult to sing and hold one\u2019s breath. Having to wear masks made them nearly impossible to perform.<\/p>\n
Cruzan had to find workarounds in the music to make it possible for performers to catch their breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a process figuring out what we need to do to get the best sound that we can,\u201d Cruzan said.<\/p>\n
Eleventh grader Koral Jackson said she was willing to make any adjustments required.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s what we have to do to perform again, it\u2019s a small price to pay,\u201d Jackson.<\/p>\n
The show also utilizes shadow puppetry to help viewers visualize scenes that are too grand to scale down to stage.<\/p>\n
After all the difficulties of the past year, students are itching to get back out on stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s weird,\u201d Cruzan said. \u201cYou don\u2019t really know how much you thrive off of performance until you go a year without it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of intimidating, but it\u2019s also exciting,\u201d said freshman Emmie Beckler. \u201cThis is going to be my first play here. and I feel like this is going to be an awesome start.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Isle of Skye\u201d will have 7 p.m. show times on March 19, 20, 26 and 27.<\/p>\n
Matinee shows on March 20 and 27 will start at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n
All performances are at the M-CHS auditorium.<\/p>\n
anicotera@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Student-created \u2018The Isle of Skye\u2019 to premiere Friday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,36,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-47893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47893","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=47893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87263,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47893\/revisions\/87263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47893"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=47893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}