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Students enjoy presenting 'The Lion King, Jr.' March 4, 2017, 6:30 pmEvery year, the drama club at Harvest keeps getting bigger and bigger, and because of the large number of students who were interested in being part of this year's show, the students were divided into two different casts. Andrew Willis and Natalia Thornton were the directors for the first cast and Wendy Smith and Barbara Dolman were the directors for the second cast. Although this was the biggest turnout that they've had in previous years, with that comes challenges and benefits. "The good thing is that more kids are involved," said Wendy Smith, a director. "The challenging things are rehearsal time with that many kids, more costumes, and more time for the more detailed makeup is needed." After auditions in October, both casts joined together during November and December to learn just the songs and the African chant pronunciations. "This whole play has been quite a process," said Natalia Thornton, a director. "At the beginning, we would just hold rehearsals in the kiva and just practiced the songs. I wrote the songs on big pieces of butcher paper and hung them on the board. We also made CDs with all the songs for each cast member, and they did a great job listening to them and learning the words at home." January through March is when each cast started to learn their lines, stage each scene and learn the choreography for each song. Wendy Smith was the choreographer for the songs and taught it to both casts. Mr. Willis designed and made the sets and props, while all the directors helped with staging and speaking parts. Even with four directors constantly working with the kids, the production couldn't have happened without the help from parent volunteers. "We had two incredibly talented moms that volunteered to do our costumes, Cassie Anderson and Hazel Hoather. They spent countless hours designing, making and perfecting our wardrobe. All the details in each piece was really amazing. Our costumes gave the play the perfect touch," says Thornton. Parker Blair, who played Mufasa in one of the casts, enjoyed being part of the drama club. His favorite part of the experience was that "the people were really nice and the costumes were pretty cool." For weeks, Blair would practice and practice his lines with his older siblings. "It was a little frustrating at first," he said, "I would memorize some lines, then I would leave out some words so I had to go back and memorize them." According to the directors, lots of good lessons come from being in drama. "I see how drama helps kids develop confidence, nurture creativity, learn new skills and have fun accomplishing a huge task," says Barbara Dolman, a director. Students like McKenna and Chloe Worthington, who had never been in drama club before, each learned something different. "I learned how to dance and I learned that I enjoy singing and dancing," recalls McKenna. For her, the hardest part was learning the sign language for the song "Can you Feel the Love Tonight." For Chloe, it was overcoming stage fright. "At first I was scared to be on stage in front of people," Chloe said, "but it isn't that scary anymore!" Adam Jepson who also had never been in a play before loved finally being in a show and not just watching it. He also learned a lot about how real stage fright is. "I was really scared up until the time I started singing the "Grasslands Chant," but after that I felt fine, and I wasn't scared anymore." When asked what has been the most rewarding thing about directing this play Smith explains, "Seeing it all come together and seeing kids from ages 8 to 12 doing such an excellent job putting it together and seeing so many parents come and get involved too." The community news source for Eagle Mountain Utah, Saratoga Springs Utah, Lehi Utah, American Fork Utah, Highland Utah, Alpine Utah, and The Cedar Valley, including Cedar Fort Utah and Fairfield Utah. Copyright 2024 The Crossroads Journal LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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