Rehearsal schedules overlap, ‘Guys and Dolls’ remains on track

Junior Lea Moustakas twitched as her arms and legs remained confined with blue buckles to a hard, white chair. Her movements seemed so realistic that the audience, from time to time, began to subconsciously mimic her as they were drawn into her monologue during the Feb. 26 student production of “Good Morning Karina.”

This year, the spring musical, which takes place on April 23, 24, 29 and 30, has had its rehearsal schedules overlap with three student productions; as a result, scheduling has been difficult for both the cast and the crew.

Moustakas, who played Dr. Karina Vor in “Good Morning Karina” and is playing Mimi in the musical, has had to balance her junior year coursework and rehearsals.

Some days, Moustaka would even arrive to school early so she could read "The Grapes of Wrath,"  the novel her English class was studying, uninterrupted before class. Moustakas also made sure to keep her teachers updated on how she was doing "physically and mentally.”

“Teachers don’t want you to be stressed, so they were really understanding to me during this period of time,” Moustakas said.

Like Moustakas, senior Nina Nelson has had to look for support and discipline to stay on top of all the work she has. Nelson has been juggling work, college auditions, the musical (in which she plays the lead, Sarah Brown), writing and directing her show “Good Morning Karina” and schoolwork.

“Last year, I didn't even know what I was up to in the next week,” Nelson said. “But scheduling and planning things months in advance [gave] me a lot more motivation because I knew it could be done, and when it would be done.”

While Nelson has been scheduling her time, drama teacher Sarah Thermond has been scheduling “Guys and Dolls” rehearsals for scenes that involve the fewest number of double-booked students. For instance, if there were student production rehearsals and musical rehearsals on the same day, Thermond made sure that the timings never coincided.

“A lot of planning work at the beginning of rehearsals was done to try and make sure that being in multiple shows would be feasible,” Thermond said. “I gave out a lot of advice on learning lines, and met with the student directors to help make sure they were planning their rehearsal schedules wisely, but other than that, we pretty much took it one show at a time.”

Despite the scheduling conflicts and other challenges the cast of the “Guys and Dolls” has run into, Thermond says the cast is incredible to work with, especially because they are so willing to try out new things.

“We have more climbable furniture being created that we have in any musical since I’ve been here, so you can expect a lot of very visually-dynamic, fun, and high energy numbers,” Thermond said.

As the cast perfects their portrayals, the tech crew is getting ready to create the perfect setting for them to do so on performance day. Stage manager and junior Gaya Chatterjee has been working on recruiting her crew and creating a workable schedule. Chatterjee currently attends Middle College at West Valley.

“I really do love drama and tech and I would never want to give any of it up, but my school work is also very important,” Chatterjee said.

Chatterjee envisions this year’s set building to be “educational” because it combines artistically utilizing lights, building with power tools, lumber and painting.

“It's really fun and exciting to see everything come together,” Chatterjee said. “It really is a great sense of accomplishment because it is the last thing we do in the whole set building process.”