From Jan. 16-18, dozens of Redwood Middle School students, split into two casts, performed six shows of the youth edition of the musical “Curtains” at the McAfee Center. Working side-by-side was a team of high school volunteers and mentors, who joined the middle schoolers during rehearsals and performances.
“Curtains” is a comedic musical-within-a-musical composed by John Kander and Fred Ebb. In the first scene, the character Jessica Cranshaw suddenly drops dead on opening night for the musical “Robbin’ Hood.” Together, detective Lieutenant Frank Cioffi and the rest of the cast must investigate this murder and save the show within 24 hours.
One of the middle schoolers who performed was 7th grader Fiona O’Malley, who played Georgia Hendricks, the actor who replaced the murdered Jessica Cranshaw’s part in “Robbin’ Hood.” Though O’Malley has been performing in musicals since fourth grade, she still struggles with opening night nerves.
“I felt like I couldn’t get on stage, but when I did, the nerves melted away,” O’Malley said. “I hope the audience loved the musical as much as I did and I hope they felt like they wanted to meet all of the people who played the characters.”
Seventh grader Gabby Bang played Carmen Bernstein, the producer of “Robbin’ Hood” who has a sassy, confident personality throughout the production. Bang is passionate about theater and has performed since third grade.
“My favorite part about playing Carmen Bernstein was getting to play around with the complexity of her character, but the hardest part was stressing [during rehearsals after] seeing how talented everyone else was and trying not to fall behind,” Bang said.
To support the actors, multiple Saratoga High students volunteered as backstage crew, including freshman Alexandra Wyatt and triplets Taylor, Lindsey and Courtney Lee — all of whom were involved in Redwood’s annual musicals before coming to SHS.
In particular, Taylor and Lindsey performed in three musicals during their time at RMS and appreciated the opportunity to volunteer. Lindsey also helped the backstage crew during her time at RMS, and Courtney and Wyatt
had always preferred working behind the scenes rather than performing onstage.
“I really did want to be a part of the [musical] community, but I didn’t like being on stage singing and acting,” Courtney said. “When I heard they needed help backstage, I quickly joined.”
Much of the costume-change responsibility fell to the parent and student volunteers, who assisted with quick costume changes to ensure the actors were ready to return to the stage on time.
The double-cast actors playing Jessica Cranshaw (in the Boston and Kansas casts) made around six costume changes during each show, since after Jessica Cranshaw’s death, the actor would join in with the ensemble.
(Courtesy of Mei Lin)
“Some of it was really difficult to do because there were many costumes and very little time,” Wyatt said. “The biggest challenge was making sure all the performers who went out were dressed and looked nice, as well as making sure they had the right outfit on for the scene.”
For the student volunteers, connecting with the theater community highlighted their experience, as they were able to make friends with both middle and high schoolers.
“My favorite part of being involved was being able to see how much the middle schoolers have grown from the very beginning to the very end,” Wyatt said.
