Sara Stadem | Editor
The Tri-Valley students had their musical play debut with Shrek in 2019 only to have to follow that up with COVID-19 creating the cancellation of their next musical, Freaky Friday, last year.
However, despite that cancellation, the Tri-Valley students were back at it this year, showcasing their musical talents, during the Wizard of Oz musical.
Even though they have only been performing musicals for a few years, the hard work that goes into plays is not new to the students at Tri-Valley. Prior to the musical Shrek in 2019, Tri-Valley had an All-School play each spring, according to Assistant Director Gaye Beaner.
When asked how the Wizard of Oz was chosen, Director Bernard Van Moer explained, “I was in a production of the Wizard of Oz a few years ago and fell in love with the musical.” He continued, “We wanted to do a classic to continue to build the theater department and bring audiences to see the talent we have here! This musical fit the personnel we had with our students.”
The 36 cast and crew members started their rehearsals towards the end of February, leading up to their two performances that took place on Thursday and Friday, April 22 and 23.
According to Van Moer, they had a great turnout with both performances full.
Junior Zach Powell, who played The Tin Man, was excited to be at it after his performance with Shrek in 2019. “I was Pinocchio in that one and actually had a broken leg. I was on crutches for that one so I was excited to see how this one went,” Powell said.
According to Powell, it was a good turnout for both days and that overall, the play went pretty well. “We didn’t think we had stuff down until the last week so we were a little nervous but it went really well. It all came together in the end,” Powell said.
Powell said his favorite parts of the play would have to be the scenes with the lion. “Whenever the Lion comes in, his scenes were really great. Everything in the forest went together really well.”
“Everything was pretty straight forward with the play,” Powell added, “But I would say the most memorable is that the four main characters (Dorothy, Scarecrow, The Tin Man and The Cowardly Lion) were student counsel and I thought that was pretty cool getting to do that together.”
“They (the students) were very proud of themselves!” Van Moer said. He continued, “I was very happy with the performances. We had some struggles that put us behind in the rehearsal process due to students being quarantined but they all came together and put on an amazing show!”