It’s one of the busiest times of the year for the Starlight Theatre Company. From the props, to the choreography, to the singing, the school musical requires all aspects of theatre. After all, it is the biggest theatre production of the year.

This year, the Starlight Theatre Company will present The Who’s Tommy, a rock musical about a boy who is blind, deaf and dumb. The musical is open to audiences in January, however preparation is well underway.

The directors cast senior Jackson Walker as the lead character, “Tommy.”

“This year, as far as preparation goes, this part is more vocally challenging so it’s more about getting prepared for that,” Walker said. “So because this year it’s a rock musical, it’s written more for that kind of style of voice which is going to make the notes higher in many cases vocally.”

The annual school musical easily is the biggest production the Starlight Theatre Company puts on. With rehearsals starting immediately after school and ending around seven pm, every student and faculty member participating has to make a commitment to be there.

“You really have to commit to learning your characterization and your choreography,” Walker said.  “If not everybody has practiced their parts before rehearsal, then as a team we all sort of collapse. So that the production can keep moving and be as good as it can possibly be, it has to be very rehearsed. ”

This is the second year Walker has been the lead in the school musical. Specific to the leading character, there are certain preparations he has to make.

“I take voice lessons and I also, on top of taking voice lessons, I have to make sure that I’m always warming up correctly and that I’m always drinking tea,” Walker said. “I have to stay hydrated to preserve my vocal health.”

With rehearsals after school, homework from eight classes and family affairs, students in the musical have to manage their time.  Junior Rebekah Wood plays the “Acid Queen” in the upcoming musical and has to dedicate a lot of time to her role while balancing everything else.

“I try to balance my time between fun and homework,” Wood said. “Theatre is fun for me so it doesn’t feel like work when I am memorizing lines, songs, choreography and blocking.”

But there is more that goes into the production of the musical than just the actors and actresses singing and dancing on stage.

Matthew Humphrey is one of the three teachers that teaches technical theatre. He is in charge of lights and building the many different sets. He works to make their visions a reality.

“You start with these big, enormous dreams,” Humphrey says. “This is our baseline. This is our big dream. And so we are now at the point where we are kind of figuring out the logistics to how we’re going to do this.”

From the technical theatre side of things, this means more sets than they’ve ever had before.

“It’s a really exciting story that lends itself to a variety of locations,” Humphrey said. “So much of the musical happens inside Tommy’s mind and so that means that we can go a little more abstract with it. In fact, we can go very abstract with it.”

However, the production of Tommy has some tricks up their sleeves this year. The technical theatre crew has built a set in which it makes it easier to use projections, which are images or videos presented on a screen, as a part of the production.

“It is the first year we’re doing projections on such a large scale,” Humphrey said. “We’re going to be projecting, I want to say, through the entire show. But luckily we have identified some really incredible students that have picked it up like that.”

With help coming in from all sides to prepare for Tommy, students and teachers that participate in the preparation look forward to the performance.

“We have such amazing kids in this department that are so ready to do anything that is asked of them,” Humphrey said. “The show is going to be pretty incredible.”