The crowd talked amongst themselves, their voices filling the auditorium with noise. Suddenly, the curtains opened, the lights dimmed, and a hush filled the room.The vibrant lights greeted the audience as Jojo, one of the main characters, walked onto the stage, picked up a hat, and the music began. Lights, camera, action!
This is Seussical, the very first musical set at Walnut Grove high school. This musical will set the expectations for future musicals, so performance is everything. Director Jess Jacobs, the theater teacher at the grove, makes the best out of the talented students and limited budget.
“The most exciting thing about this musical is that we get to have a fresh start and experience all this great new talent that we’ve never seen before and give our community an awesome product,” Jabobs said.
Jacobs is new to the Prosper ISD district and is starting the theater program at Walnut Grove from scratch.
“There is a learning curve of learning the building and some things are still being installed, but there are so many more upsides than downsides,” Jacobs said. “The upsides are that the students are spectacular, the community is incredibly supportive, and our district is amazing.”
Behind every director is a cast. For a show to be successful, you must have a hardworking and talented cast.
Clarice Pesce, the sophomore who plays Jojo in Seussical, described her participation in the first musical at the grove as, ‘a positive experience.’”
“Everyone is extraordinarily supportive, and extremely professional as well,.” Pesce said. “Being in a performance with such hardworking people has definitely made it easy to collaborate and create such a beautiful show.”
There are many things that Pesce has in mind for future musicals at Walnut Grove.
“I would really like in the future to have more choir students to participate in our performances and maybe collaborate with other fine arts sectors as well,” Pesce said.
With many working parts behind the Seussical, the audience, consisting of elementary kids and Walnut Grove students, was more than expected.
“There were more people that attended than we expected. We ordered a certain number of programs and we doubled that number,” Jacobs said. “It was really exciting to see that people were excited to see our work.”
Elementary school children could be heard cheering for their favorite characters at the conclusion of Seussical on Thursday last week.
“I was looking forward to performing for the elementary schoolers from Folsom,” Pesce said.“I think since our show is directed towards a younger audience, it would be something that they will enjoy watching!”
The theater performed for Walnut Grove on Friday and Saturday last week.
“The musical exceeded my expectations. It was very colorful and bright and it was such a fun and spontaneous experience.” freshman Nifemi Kolawole, a freshman at Walnut Grove, said. “I really loved the costume and the set. They really used everything on stage to make it a more spectacular play.”
With the amount of students and families who attended the Seussical, the director deemed the musical a success.
“I hoped that we could make a fantastic debut performance for our musical theater program and have an enjoyable production.” Jacobs said.
