By TYLER PATRICK
“I really thought this show would accent the kids personalities because they enjoy playing little children, and Charlie Brown is a hometown favorite for people of all ages,” drama teacher Tiffany Weagley said.
The musical relates to most classic Charlie Brown stories, in the sense that the plot line is a regular day in the life of Charlie Brown but is infused with 14 large musical numbers. The musical contains quotes from the cartoon, and it features a classic Charlie Brown baseball game. The characters of the musical bring back the same memories the classic Charlie Brown stories contained. Linus still carries a blanket, Lucy is still sassy, Schroeder is still obsessed with classical music and Charlie Brown still can’t do anything right according to his friends and family.
Playing Charlie Brown is a difficult task for somebody that is usually not glum in real life, but senior Jordan Smith overcame this challenge.
“Since I got the part, I’ve become more introverted in my thoughts. I try to act more mopey sometimes so that when I get on stage, I feel like I’ve been living as my character for a while, rather than just switching into it for the show,” Smith said.
The cast includes six main characters and an ensemble cast of 16.
In one scene, Lucy Van Pelt (junior Ashley Connelly) tells her brother Linus that one day she will be a queen, and when he tells her that you have to be born into royalty for that to happen, she insists that he is wrong because anybody can be a queen if they dream to do it.
“I boss people around sometimes but not to the same extremes that Lucy does; I’m not as mean and crabby as her,” Connelly said.
The costumes will resemble the classic stories as well. Charlie Brown will wear his famous yellow sweater featuring a black stripe across the middle. The rest of the cast will wear simple, child-like clothing such as plain tee shirts, knee high socks and Velcro shoes. The idea of the outfits is to help convey that the teenagers in the cast are actually 5-year-olds.
The setting of the play is minimal. The show is largely composed of short scenes, and it is up to the audience to imagine the location of each scene. The building of the set for the production was spaced out over a long period of time. Since it was so minimal, the tech crew could take their time. A small brick wall will be used in the background to take the audience to a different location from the stage. Snoopy will have his doghouse, there is a moving school bus and other
props will include over-sized items that the Peanuts would have used like an over-sized remote control, notebooks and pencils to
name a few.
The pit orchestra provided by six members of the band and the assistant band director will set the mood playing the flute, clarinet, saxophone, violin, viola, electric bass, double bass, drum set and the mallet and auxiliary percussion. The minimal lighting of the musical will also help the cast set the mood with their portrayal of their characters.
There is a large ensemble cast of 16 in the show that will support the lead cast of six and provide humor to the show.
The drama department raises the money to pay for each show they produce. Their production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown will cost close to $8,000, and they hope to sell enough tickets to break even.
“Our vision is to create the kind of world that Charles Schultz envisioned. I really want to see the Peanuts universe come to life. I really hope the show is memorable since it’s our last big show of the year, and I want the entire cast and crew to feel like one big family because that’s what we are,” senior Lawrence Dunn said.