By Pen Fang, Angelina Tang
It’s that time of the year again — get ready for the East Drama Club’s performance of Mamma Mia! at 7 P.M. on March 7-9th, in addition to a matinee performance at 2 P.M. on March 9th. Tickets are on sale right now on Ticket Peak for $13.00, and they will also be sold at the door for $15.00 at every showing. Also, there will be an in-school assembly on Wednesday, March 6th.
Mamma Mia! is a high-energy romantic drama that takes place on the fictional Greek island of Kalokairi. The story follows Sophie Sheridan (Sophia McVige), a 20-year-old girl getting married who doesn’t know who her father is. Based on Donna Sheridan (Phoebe Auquier), her mother’s, old diary, she finds three suspects: Sam Carmichael (Miles Seifert), Bill Austin (Jacob Chavanne), and Harry Bright (Luca Ballarin). She invites all three of them to her wedding, and shenanigans ensue. The musical was written based off of ABBA’s greatest hits, including but certainly not limited to “Mamma Mia,” “Dancing Queen,” “Lay All Your Love,” “Honey, Honey,” and “The Winner Takes it All.” Emotional, joyous, and energetic, Mamma Mia! will be a sure hit with the audience. It has also taken a great deal of hard work and dedication to pull together.
Rehearsals began in January and have been near-daily since. Mrs. LoVullo directs choreography and blocking while Mrs. Raimondo and Mrs. Girzone direct vocals for ensemble and leads respectively. Mrs. Ieda is the pit orchestra conductor, and Mrs. Mahaney runs behind-the-scenes management.
Mrs. LoVullo, who minored in dance instruction, creates the choreography herself. She draws on the music and past productions for inspiration, though a fair amount of the process is figuring out the dances — specifically what works and what doesn’t work — during rehearsals when she implements her plans. In fact, her favorite thing is when people react well to something she’s choreographed because then she “know[s] it works.” Because of the amount of large, ensemble performances, she says, “I feel like I’m putting on a dance recital!” Additionally, the dance captains for Mamma Mia! are Evie Harnick and Katelyn Lee.
“Live, laugh, love dance rehearsals,” Elizabeth Buckingham, a senior playing Lisa and Drama Club Co-Vice President, jokes while describing dance rehearsals as her favorite part of the musical process. Michael Otto, a junior playing Eddie, also cites the big dances as his favorite part. In particular, he likes “Lay All Your Love on Me” because it “has a lot of moving parts and is an exciting dance! And [it’s] fun to do because it requires a lot of energy. It feels complete.”
Mrs. LoVullo is also the stage director. While she has done both stage direction and choreography direction separately, she has not done both simultaneously in a while. She explains that she is able to more easily connect acting scenes with choreography scenes, since she is in charge of both, adding that “it’s refreshing” to be able to pick up where the acting leaves off to do choreography or vice versa and bridge that gap more easily.
Mrs. Girzone works primarily with the lead actors and actresses, coaching them with vocals and acting. “This show is kind of different because it’s music that everybody has heard before,” Mrs. Girzone explains. “A lot of our leads came in already knowing a lot of the music, so it gave me the opportunity to really just coach them vocally — to give them tips for technique, how to project their voices better, how to apply techniques we were working on to singing and dancing at the same time, or giving them acting tips to go with their singing.”
She also adds that working with smaller groups was nice as she was able to “develop those relationships with people and know them and how they sing. And to see them grow on stage as the process goes on.”
Emily Haile, a senior playing Ali and Drama Club President, says that the smaller rehearsals especially are her favorite part of the musical process as, “it allowed me to make connections and get to know people I wouldn’t get to otherwise.”
Meanwhile, the music of Mamma Mia! will be performed live by the pit orchestra, conducted by our very own orchestra teacher Mrs. Ieda and featuring chorus and music theory teacher Mrs. Raimondo on keyboard #1. The pit for this musical is not a traditional orchestra setup. Rather, as Mrs. Ieda puts it, it’s more like a “small rock band.” The Broadway arrangement for this musical has no string instruments–only guitar, bass guitar, percussion, and keyboards. However, thanks to a prior arrangement from North Tonawanda High School’s band teacher, East purchased brass and woodwind parts from them, and in addition to that, Mrs. Ieda pulled some of the string sound effect parts from the keyboard parts and gave them to some proper violins, violas, and cello. “There were a lot of East musicians who wanted to be in pit but didn’t have any parts,” she says. “It’s hard to say to musicians who want to play, ‘I’m sorry, you’ll have to sit out this year.’ I’m really glad we… can include a lot more of our wonderful East musicians in this production.”
Pit has been rehearsing diligently since before midterm week, and the music has really come together. Only after February break did the laptops containing the keyboard patches–sound effect presets–arrive, but practicing with them during rehearsals with the full cast has helped the keyboard players grow accustomed to using them. Senior Jamie Smith, who is the Stage Crew Chief and playing keyboard #3 for Mamma Mia!, says, “Learning to line up the patches with the music was really difficult. Some have certain tempos that the rest of the pit has to follow… [but] as someone who doesn’t play piano much, this musical was a perfect way to dive deeper since I [already knew] all the songs.” The pit has been hard at work figuring out all of the cues and tempos. Also, special thanks to Mr. McCluskey for helping set up all of the amps and music stands!
Putting singing, acting, dance, and music all together is a difficult task, but the cast has done a great job of it. They went off-book the week before February break, beginning to merge the work done with Mrs. Raimondo and Mrs. Girzone with Mrs. LoVullo’s choreography. They also had the first Sitzprobe that week, combining the vocals with Mrs. Ieda and the pit orchestra. After February break, they have been holding daily after-school rehearsals in the auditorium, with the cast finally fully singing and dancing to the pit orchestra’s music rather than recordings. The pit orchestra has been put to the test with this development as well, as this type of music contains repeated sections called “vamps.” The orchestra has to coordinate and exit the vamp, proceeding with the next part of the song, only when certain dialogue cues have been granted by the actors on stage. Mrs. Raimondo considers this to be the most challenging part of putting the pit and vocals together. “You end up being accompanists. So you have to be paying attention to what is going onstage and you have to be able to be flexible and not just play through. Everyone has to be hyper-focused with what’s happening on stage and what you’re doing.”
“I think it’s really fun to see the kids on stage when they hear the pit for the first time,” she adds. “Because then it kind of brings it all together — the energy definitely goes up a lot, so that’s really fun.”
The process of putting the musical together has given the cast and crew the opportunity to bond through countless hours of rehearsals — as well as introduce new talent to the club. Haile notes, “It’s really nice to see Mamma Mia! bring in more people because it’s so big and well known. We have a big freshman cast and new seniors and juniors and guys.”
Phoebe Auquier, a senior playing Donna Sheridan and Drama Club Co-Vice President, expresses a similar sentiment. She says her favorite part of working on Mamma Mia! was “definitely getting to know so many new people! I feel like high school can be so cliquey, and being a part of the musical really introduced me to so many people I probably would have never talked to in the normal high school setting.”
“I want people to know that doing the musical is genuinely such an incredible experience,” Auquier adds. “The environment is so judgment free and the community is so supportive of one another. I feel like joining a new club or activity can be really scary, but Drama Club truly does welcome anyone with open arms, and that’s something I really admire about this club.”
Haile and Buckingham are both making their student directorial debuts with Mamma Mia! They express that they are grateful to have each other throughout the process to be able to collaborate when it comes to writing the blocking down, dividing work, and covering roles. Haile adds that she is “part of a million other clubs” with a laugh and is glad that they are able to “tag-team the process,” as Buckingham puts it.
“We put so much effort into this show,” Buckingham says.
Buckingham’s words — what she wants you to know about the show — highlight the shared dedication and passion behind this musical that has allowed Drama Club to create such an excellent experience for all involved.
“It’s definitely a great time killer,” Otto, whose first musical production at East is Mamma Mia!, jokes in reference to the work that goes into making the show run. “In a good way, because you’re working toward something.”
Auquier, whose last production at East will be Mamma Mia!, comments, “Being a part of the musical is truly an amazing experience. For years I’ve considered it to be one of the highlights of my school year. The process of putting a show together can be long and exhausting, but in the end it’s so worth it.” Buckingham, also a senior, shares how it feels bittersweet for her. “I’m happy to have the awesome opportunity to be in all these shows, but it’s like, this is it. I’m really thankful.”
The collaborative spirit and dedication behind Mamma Mia! truly shines through. Haile explains, “[Mamma Mia!] isn’t just the people on stage. It incorporates the artists who did the sets, pit’s talented musicians, the crew. All of them are working just as hard as we are,” Neomi Adams, a member of stage crew, chimes in. She says that it is a lot of fun to hang out with stage crew and bond more, and that it’s really cool behind the scenes to get to see a preview of what everyone’s doing.
Both the teachers and students involved love the community the show has been able to create. Mrs. Raimondo shares, “The community it builds is really awesome. Watching people become friends and help each other — it’s always really fun.” Haile agrees: “It’s nice to have this show because we got to grow a community.”
“I think it’s a super fun show that the kids have been really enjoying putting together,” Mrs. Girzone comments. “It’s got a lot of singing and dancing. so it’s just been a really fun process for everybody. And I would love for so many people — students and faculty — to come out and see all the hard work everyone has put into it, but also be there in the audience and have fun with us.”
“I think the spirit of the musical suits the spirit of the cast, crew, and pit,” Mrs. LoVullo says. “It’s so lively, and I can’t wait for an audience to see it.”
