Heartland will perform “Guys and Dolls” on March 28 and 29. The cast and crew include 30 Heartland students. Producing a quality musical like this one takes a lot of folks, and this year, Lynn Hall and Lisa Kroeker are directing, and Bailey Seaton is in charge of the choreography. The artwork is by Ian Huebert and Wade Nissen, the costumes are by Sheree Goertzen, and Jeff Kroeker is handling the setwork.
Reprinted from Henderson News
Written by Kerri Pankratz
HENDERSON – Guess what? It’s a musical year! Who doesn’t love attending a Heartland Community Schools musical? This year’s production is bringing a taste of the Big Apple to small-town Henderson. “Guys and Dolls” is a musical set in Depression-era Times Square in New York City and follows a couple of big city gamblers and the women who love them.
The musical tells the overlapping stories of high roller Sky Masterson, played by Zach Miller, who falls in love with mission worker Sarah Brown, played by Isabel Johnson, and lovable rapscallion Nathan Detroit, played by Samuel Quiring, engaged for 14 years to Miss Adelaide, played by Emersyn Oswald, a headliner at the Hot Box Club.
“Guys and Dolls” is being directed by Lynn Hall and Lisa Kroeker with choreography by Bailey Seaton.
Senior Johnson has some “stage experience” under her belt as she appeared in “Into the Woods” her sophomore year.
“I was literally a tree.” Johnson said. “I did sing once. And I think I had a line, but I don’t remember it anymore.”
This time around she has a bit more than one line. You see, legendary gambler Masterson has taken a bet with Detroit that he can charm her, a severe Save-a-Soul Mission Sergeant, into having dinner with him.
“At least my character doesn’t have an accent so that part’s been easy for me.” said Johnson.
The majority of the actors in the Heartland production have had to adopt a New York accent for their parts and Oswald, also a senior at Heartland, seems to have gotten her’s down to a T, and she lays it on pretty thick.
“The hardest part for me is trying not to laugh.” said Oswald, “That and the fact that I have to say all of these lines in front of people.”
“We’re going over lines all the time.” according to Oswald. “We sit a lot here when we aren’t up on stage so we work on lines then.”
Although she claims to get nervous onstage, it didn’t appear so at last Friday’s rehearsal, when the Hot Box Club girls ran through one of their two show-stopping performances.
“There’s two Hot Box scenes.” said Oswald, “‘A Bushel and a Peck’ and then there’s a ‘Mink’ one that probably still needs a little bit of work.”
Oswald’s character, Miss Adelaide, is pretty single minded in her continuous quest to convince Nathan, who runs a floating craps game, to marry her.
When asked what they each enjoyed the most about the musical experience Johnson stated, “I like hearing new people sing that I haven’t heard before.”
Who’s been the most surprising?
“I’ve never really heard her sing before!” said Johnson, laughing while pointing at Oswald.
“I just joined chorus last year, second semester, because I didn’t really like to sing.” chuckled Oswald.
So going from a chorus newbie to one of the leads in a musical is a pretty big step. But what about their counterparts?
“The guys are good.” both girls stated.
“They’ve gotta be.” said Johnson. “There’s more scenes with all the guys.”
Practice has been underway for the past several weeks but according to Oswald, “With snow days rehearsals have been weird.” Meaning they have missed out on several practice opportunities.
“We start practice right after basketball and now track practice every day,” said Johnson, “and it usually goes until 8 p.m. It will start going later, usually closer to the end; practice will go until 9 or 10 p.m.”
“We missed two practices with Sneak,” said Oswald, “but luckily, we made it back for this one.”
By the skin of their teeth, they had just rolled into town an hour earlier from their Senior Sneak trip to Colorado.
With just under three weeks left of practice before the curtain rises on opening night, Friday, March 28, and again on Saturday, March 29, both girls were confident everything would come together in the end.
So this is your notice, dear readers, for a taste of the bright lights of Broadway along with some amazing showtunes, get your tickets now. Tickets can be purchased at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6585970.
The Hot Box Club dancers, featuring Emersyn Oswald’s Miss Adelaide (center) perform “A Bushel and a Peck” at “Guys and Dolls” rehearsal last Friday.
Miss Adelaide (Emersyn Oswald) is carried off stage by Nathan Detroit’s (far right) pals.
