Behind the Curtain

Behind the Curtain

A look behind the scenes at the high school musical

Chris Doucett ‘24

This year, Greenport's spring musical is going to be High School Musical On Stage! The show is on April 5th and 6th. Our audience only sees the finished polished product but there is so much more than that. So much happens in the many months leading up to the show that the audience never gets to see ahead of time; all of the moving parts, from choreography, to stage crew, to our ensemble. The play has so many layers that the regular person might not see. So this article is going to take a deep dive into what actually goes into the production of our high school play; this is a dive behind the curtains.

One of the biggest parts of putting on a musical is the choreography. When the audience sees the final production all dance numbers seem fun and natural, but it takes a long time to get the cast to learn these moves, and the crew to assist. 

Our choreographer, Karissa Despres is one of the biggest helps for our musical. There are so many different dances throughout the show and Karissa plays a big part in making sure everything looks good. Karissa runs her own dance studio, North Fork Dance Studio and comes in to help us out whenever she can. We are very thankful to be able to call her part of the team. 

Coming into each practice, Karissa already knows what choreography she is going to teach us and uses her own personal script to go through each dance number. She choreographs each dance- it is not the same choreography from production to production of the same play. Learning the dances, however, is on the cast. Some dances we as a cast pick up quite quickly, while others may take upwards of 6 hours of practice to learn.

You have to remember that each member of the cast is an individual and we all learn at our own speed. Learning the choreography is only a part of this though, as the crew must learn where all of the props go and the lightning crew must also know their cues. There are a lot of individual pieces that must be learned before we all come together for the production.

One element that everyone notices the most about a show is the costumes.  A lot of time and thought goes into the wardrobe in any show. Our wardrobe is done by Virginia Cava. She took all of our measurements and is making sure all of our outfits look amazing. Virginia searches all over the island and gets our clothes from all over the place. This means that almost all of the costumes are thrifted! She scores thrift stores each year for the play that the school is putting on using each character's measurements. The only items that Virginia is not supplying this year are the rented Wildcat jackets and jerseys. 

Another big part is our lighting crew. Various students take part in making sure all of us on the stage look our best. Our light crew this year is headlined by Luis Tapia and Gavin Sage. They are one of the most important parts of the show behind the scenes. They do our spotlights and make sure everything lights wise is looking good for our production. Just like Karrissa, our lighting crew has their own script so they can follow along in the lighting booth making sure the lights are on the right people at the right time. When you are sitting at the play this year take a moment to see how many times the lights change and move.  This is not done by chance. This is all choreographed to highlight and enhance the show. 

The stage crew is another massive part of the show. Making sure all of our props are out at the right times and with the right people is a massive part of putting on the show. Much like our choreographer and the lighting crew, each individual has their own script where they can take notes and make sure every prop is on stage and looking the best. Our stage manager, Rocio Azama, leads an amazing crew of Greenports students. The crew consists of Kelsey Hernandez, Olivia Nocklein, Jeremiah King Smith, and Jackie Martocchia. 

And last but not least the biggest part of the play is our directors Dylan Finder and Erika Cabral. They are undoubtedly the most important part of the play. The director of the show basically makes sure everything, from behind the scenes, to acting, to singing looks good and makes sense. We are so lucky that they both sacrifice their time almost everyday after school to put on rehearsals and help us with anything and everything we need. The whole cast is so grateful to be able to call them our directors and the show undoubtedly would not be the same without them. 

All of our hard work is almost ready to be on display. The cast is so excited to show everyone what we have been working on. Be sure to come and support all of the wonderful people involved with putting on our show April 5th and 6th! There will be one showing on April 5th at 7pm and then 2 shows on April 6th, one showing at 2pm and another at 7pm. The cast would love to see everyone there!