Students in Musical Theater II, III, and IV have been working to writing their own musical for the past few months.
Although the musical had originally been planned to be completed and performed this semester, the students are putting the musical on hold until next year.

 
“We decided as a class that we aren’t going to be able to complete it. We didn’t have enough time to mash the songs up and develop the characters,” sophomore Avery LaRue said.
Students are now deciding which musical they will perform, in place of the original musical.
“We’re considering ‘Back to the 80’s’, which has a lot of popular music like ‘Eye of the Tiger’, ‘Mickey’, and ‘Girls just want to have fun,” LaRue said.

 
Before they could begin to write their own musical, students in the musical theater class had to study playwriting.
“We started by studying playwriting, and that process. Then we moved on to character development and thinking about a story,” musical theatre teacher Marco Bazan said.

 
Each student was asked to create his or her own character while working on the production.
“What has to happen before we all come together and create a story is to come up with our own character,” LaRue said. “We have to come up with their past and their problems or struggles, and since it’s a musical, find a song that reflects the character’s emotions.”
Songs for the musical are made by mixing various songs together to create something new.”
“We’re taking songs already written and mixing them together, we’re incorporating the songs by tying them together and giving them new meaning,” Bazan said.

 
“We just take 30 seconds of different songs and then mash it all up, kind of like the movie Moulin Rouge,” LaRue said.
According to LaRue, the key to creating an original musical is communication between everyone working on the production.
“I think the main thing is making sure we all communicate,” LaRue said.
The classes have been working on the musical since the fall semester.

 
“We’ve been working on the musical for the past six or seven months,” Bazan said.
The four musical theatre classes will perform for the musical review at the end of the year.
“All the musical theatre classes come together and perform musical review. Everyone does a song, and you have to audition for the spring musical review, unlike the fall musical review where there were no auditions,” freshman Karis Ellsworth said.