Stepping Onto the Island

Ti Moune faces many struggles during her quest to save her lover. Likewise, the cast and crew had their own challenges to overcome in order to keep their love for performing alive. The cast and crew members spent hours after school ,  Saturdays, and at home on perfecting songs, working on dances, putting together sets, and practicing scene changes. However Jelly Steele, a junior and cast member, explained that it was not always perfect on set: “We had our moments that we were at each other throats, but we all know tensions run high when people are so passionate about the performance.” Emma Adams, a sophomore and the actress who played Andrea in the play, agrees with Steele that they “had both their good and not so good times, but it was all worth it because we put on a great show.”

The cast and crew’s dedication doesn’t need to be told, it all showed in beauty of the set and the actor’s embodiments of their characters. Embracing the theme of the island, the performers spoke and sang in a Pacific Islander accents, they even made the  sounds of the birds, trees, and sea; the stage was truly alive. It was neither silent, nor dull. Risa Jensen, a Junior at Woodside High School, was taken aback by the powerful dances and songs, as while were many other in the audience. Jensen voiced that her “eyes sparkled in awe as the lights flashed, watching the stage come alive before [her] during the first dance ‘We Dance.”

As the cast came out from backstage the chatter of the performance filled the hall of the PAC. The cast on the adrenaline rush of just having put on a  great performance, and the audience thrilled to had been apart of witnessing their friends, family member, or students taking pride in their wonderful performance. The audience had only the highest praise for the scintillating performance. Peter Wake announced that everyone involved clearly “had worked day in and day out perfecting their vocals, and working on the choreography.” The drama teacher at Kennedy Middle School, Ms. Morrey was blown away by the musical, and claims that “if Woodside used this performance to compete with, they would surely win; hands down.”

On closing night, after their very last performance, roses took over the stage as the cast demonstrated their appreciation for each person that put in hours of work, making the musical a top notch performance. The make-up assistants,  the choreographer, stage crew, the orchestra, and stage parents were all thanked by the cast. To keep  performances that get the audiences standing up for more like this one, Barry Woodruff, the director, asks to make a donation to the Woodside Performing Art department.