<\/p>\n
Bust out your raincoats and umbrellas for this year\u2019s musical production at Montezuma-Cortez Middle School.<\/p>\n
This fall, the middle school\u2019s theater department is performing the classic romantic comedy \u201cSingin\u2019 in the Rain.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a whirlwind few months of dance lessons and set-building and even some \u201clovey-dovey\u201d scenes, but it\u2019s finally coming together, students and teachers said last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this show has really proven how well 65 kids can problem-solve and create together,\u201d said Angela Gabardi, co-director and middle school theater teacher. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of hiccups from dance moves to set pieces to costumes to everything. And they worked with such positive attitudes to really make something happen, and even though we\u2019ve had those struggles, we\u2019ve really made a strong show.\u201d<\/p>\n
This will be the fifth musical produced by the department, joining the ranks of \u201cThe Pirates of Penzance,\u201d \u201cInto the Woods,\u201d and, last year, \u201cEmma! A Pop Musical.\u201d<\/p>\n
The musical is set in Hollywood in the late 1920s, just as the film industry is moving from silent films to \u201ctalkies\u201d with sound.<\/p>\n
Against this backdrop, actors Don Lockwood and Kathy Seldon fall for each other, although their relationship is somewhat thwarted by the obnoxious Lina Lamont \u2013 Don\u2019s usual leading lady with a terrible voice.<\/p>\n
The middle school production features a 39-person cast, and about 24 students on backstage and technical crews. About a dozen school staff and parents also supported the production throughout the rehearsal season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never attended any of the plays at all, so it will be awesome to just see one of them, and knowing that I helped create it somehow,\u201d said John Jacobs, an eighth grader on the sound team.<\/p>\n
Debbie McHenry is providing musical accompaniment on the piano.<\/p>\n
Singing and dancing, you might guess, is a big part of the show \u2013 requiring some serious coordination and synchronization for the middle schoolers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of footwork and a lot of movement really fast, which depends on the song, but it\u2019s really fun, and I do learn a lot of stuff,\u201d said eighth grader Tyler (Spikey) Jackson, who plays a teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cSingin\u2019 in the Rain\u201d also is a romance, meaning that some cast members have had to practice their stage flirtation skills \u2013 and third wheeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to be very lovey-dovey with this guy,\u201d said Payton Gnas, who plays Kathy Seldon, pointing to fellow eighth grader Chandler Snyder (Don Lockwood). \u201cAnd having to express so many emotions can be kind of tricky, because you don\u2019t know how to play it sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cosmo Brown, played by Xander Bennetts, is the best friend who hangs around the two lovebirds and serves as comic relief. He loves his humorous character, although it has come with certain difficulties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge was remembering and trying to keep your breath,\u201d Bennetts said. \u201cBecause with Cosmo, he\u2019s all over the place, kind of a crazy guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
But after months of rehearsals, the stage is set for opening night. This week is Tech Week, with students rehearsing in costume in the middle school theater, where the performances will be held.<\/p>\n
The show will be performed at 7 p.m. Friday and at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday in the middle school gym.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expected that we were going to have a good turnout, which we did,\u201d said Marla Sitton, co-director and choir teacher at the middle and high school. \u201cI expected that we were going to have excellent singers, which we do. I expected we were going to have a little bit of frustration with the dancing, did that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I also expected that we were going to have a lot of fun and the kids were going to grow in ways that they didn\u2019t know that they could. I\u2019m super proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
ealvero @the-journal.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A musical romantic comedy at Montezuma-Cortez Middle School<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5738,5794,5740,5737,5736,5810,5834,5735,5741],"tags":[21,155,13,28,216,2401,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-91882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cortez","category-education","category-frontpage-lead","category-headlines","category-local-news","category-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","category-musical-theater","category-news","category-newsletter","tag-cortez","tag-education","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","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\/91882","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=91882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91882"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=91882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}