As the lights in the house dim, and the sounds of familiar jukebox tunes fill the air, the audience is transported to the vibrant Greek tavern where the story of Mamma Mia takes place. January 16 through 19 and 23 through 26, the Starlight Theatre Company (STC) put on the production of Mamma Mia directed by Marco Bazan, Matthew Humphrey, and Kade Lasseigne.
“We worked on Mamma Mia from late October until January,” Lasseigne said. “We had about two weeks of vocal practices where we were learning how to sing the songs, and then we had a month of choreography work, and then just kind of putting it all together.”
For Mamma Mia, the directors triple casted, meaning there were three sets of casts rotating from opening and closing night. The three casts were Nixon, McKinney, and Bryan. These casts were named after the last name of the actor who played the role of Donna, Sophie’s mom.
“We wanted to do Mamma Mia because it’s a great show, a great crowd pleaser and a great opportunity for female performers,” Bazan said. “Which is not always the case in a lot of musicals and it’s just really fun to do and gives a lot more opportunities for people to kind of step up into leading roles.”
The cast practiced every day after school, sometimes these practices would last until 10 or 11 p.m. When it was nearing opening night, the cast got field tripped for two days in order to perfect their performances.
“Balancing the musical and school was definitely a lot, especially near the end and sometimes you just have to ask teachers for extensions on assignments which I had to do during show week,” junior actor Ellie Nowlin said. “You just have to focus your time as best as you can and use the most of your time in both places so you can get all of your stuff done.”
Background dancers and actors in the musical are referred to as the ensemble. If a student doesn’t receive a call back for a certain role after auditions, they’re automatically a part of the ensemble. Junior Brandon Beeler has experience as a part of the ensemble and as a leading role in Mamma Mia.
“I was in an ensemble on my off nights and you get to be a part of everything and sing everything,” Beeler said. “I was also a part of the ensemble last year and it’s so much fun because it’s where all of your friends are and you don’t have the pressure of being a lead who has to memorize lines.”
Alice Jefferies, Gibson Gelfer, Madigan Pound, and Genevieve Downing are student choreographers who created the dances throughout the musical. Each was assigned songs to create a number to.
“I am such a dance person and I’ve always loved to dance,” Lasseigne said. “So, getting the chance to work with the four student choreographers and getting to tell the story through dance is probably my favorite part about putting on a musical.”
This is STC’s second time putting on Mamma Mia. In 2019, Mamma Mia had 12 performances while this year Mamma Mia only had eight performances, including two sold out shows. According to Humphrey, Mamma Mia raised $48,000, now considered the most money any musical has made since the STC opened.
“I’ve been doing theatre for so long that it gets to the point where you just don’t have stage fright,” Beeler said. “You can’t really see people individually because the lights are so bright and the second you go on stage and say your first couple of lines, the audience just melts away, it’s like they’re not even there. It’s hard to fathom that there are 250 people watching you.”
Every year, the STC puts on one major musical and a musical in their theatre course that is performed in class in the Starlight Theatre.
“I hadn’t seen the musical, so I wanted to just make the character my own and be original with it,” sophomore actor Liam Sullivan said. “I learned how to become a better dancer and how to have more chemistry on stage by being connected with such amazing and talented people from this show and I will have a deep connection with this show moving on.”
