If you are looking for fun weekend plans sure to keep you singing, dancing and laughing, you might consider visiting Brown County High School’s auditorium.
The high school theater department will put on its first musical since the pandemic this weekend when their production of “Mamma Mia!” takes center stage.
The show features songs by Swedish pop sensation ABBA. Audiences will enjoy songs like the title track, “Dancing Queen,” “Money Money Money,” “Voulez Vous” and more.
Theater Director Daniel Lyng said the show tells “a heartwarming story through a disco bash.”
The story revolves around a mother and daughter living in Greece, about to celebrate the daughter’s wedding.
But Sophie, played by sophomore Lilly Voils, does not have a father to walk her down the aisle, so she sends letters to three gentlemen who could possibly be her father.
Sophie’s mother Donna, played by senior Abby Padgett, is unaware that three of her former lovers will make their way to the island and potentially announce their paternity.
What ensues is emotion, laughs and, of course, song and dance.
Lyng picked the musical because he was looking for something with a large cast. There are 30 students on stage in the play with a total of nearly 60 in the whole department working to make the show happen.
He said he was also looking for something to feature a lot of the talented seniors involved with this year’s musical.
“And I was looking for something that was good pure fun,” he said.
The 2020 spring musical was supposed to be “Matilda,” but the pandemic shut it down weeks before opening.
The reason Lyng chose to forego the show and pick up “Mamma Mia!” instead was due to a few factors.
“Though it’s fun, still has these dark sinister undertones, too dark for first show back from COVID,” he said.
It’s also a show that will be a great opportunity to build the theater program since it features a much younger cast, so that musical will happen over the summer — the first ever summer musical production — and feature a cast with members as young as the third grade, he said.
For “Mamma Mia!” Lyng said he gets to start with a fresh cast and crew, with most of them not having been in a musical before.
“I’m getting to teach them what tech weeks look like,” he said. “That’s actually making things smoother because we can all be on the same page.”
Working hard
With a higher concentration of new people joining the troupe, senior Aidan Lucas said it’s great to have so many new recruits “throwing themselves” into the production.
There are veteran performers returning to the stage and some new faces as well.
Lucas and senior Elijah Clarke had roles in “Clue” last fall as well as a number of other performances.
Lucas plays Sam Carmichael, one of the possible fathers and Clarke plays Sky, Sophie’s fiance.
Josh Miller and Aden Rice, both seniors, have not been in a performance before. Miller plays Bill Anderson, another potential father, and Rice plays Rosie, a friend of Donna.
Eli Wilkinson, a senior who plays potential dad Harry Bright, last acting role was when he played the farmer in the Helmsburg Elementary School production of “Charlotte’s Web.”
Miller said he needed an arts credit and was “pestered” by his classmates to join theater. He said he thought, “You know what, it’ll be fun.”
Learning how a musical comes together, goofing around with friends and dancing on stage are what the seniors enjoy most about this production.
For Rice, her favorite part has been the people.
“I just love meeting all the new people and making all the new friends,” she said.
For the veteran performers, a new and challenging aspect has been to focus not just on acting, but singing too.
“For ‘Clue’ there was a lot more focus on the acting and quality of acting, ‘Mamma Mia!’ is not a character heavy show. There’s a big difference in working on acting and working on singing,” Clarke said.
“Being able to show emotion while singing is much different,” Lucas said. “You have to go to a different place (emotionally). You have to be constantly aware of what your face and voice are doing.”
The seniors reflected on the similarities and differences between them and their characters they portray in the show.
Rice said she is different from her character Rosie in a lot of ways, with Rosie being “crazy and outgoing.”
“She’s crazy and outgoing and she’s just herself and is OK with that,” she said. “It is super fun to be that crazy that does whatever she wants.”
Miller said he and his character Bill Anderson are both proud of their experiences and like to talk about them. “We both like to get reactions out of people,” he said.
Wilkinson said he shares more similarities with the younger version of his character, Harry Bright, whose nickname was “Headbanger” in his youth.
“I relate to Headbanger, not so much Harry,” he said. Qualities like spontaneity and musical interest are shared, but Harry is more “out there,” Wilkinson said, who tends to be more quiet.
Lucas finds himself similar to his character Sam Carmichael, though in different phases of life and having faced different challenges.
“I resonate a lot with (Sam’s) emphasis on responsibility,” he said. “It’s interesting as an 18-year-old to play a 40 plus year old man who’s been through hardships I haven’t faced, that restructuring of your world is harder for me, but I resonate a lot with his responsibility and his willingness to give to the people that he loves.”
Lyng deliberately picked a production that was also low on technical demand so the main focus could be getting the band together with the singers.
The high school band is also out of the pit and on the stage for the first time, presiding over the musical from the terrace of the set.
This has optimized stage space and made it look less stuffy and more like a band, Lyng said.
Rice said the cast and crew have worked hard to make this musical “the best it could be.”
After two years being in isolation without many entertainment opportunities, coming back to something joyful is a great way to re-enter the arts, Lyng added.
“People should come see it because there aren’t many shows out there that are pure fun all the way through,” he said.
The cast
Abby Padgett: Donna
Aubrey Harden: Understudy
Lilly Voils: Sophie
Sam Smith: Understudy
Aidan Lucas: Sam
Daylen Dees: Understudy
Josh Miller: Bill
Wesley Bethards: Understudy
Eli Wilkinson: Harry
Sawyer Kelp: Understudy
Eli Clarke: Sky
Caleb Clifford: Understudy
Marie Fields: Tanya
Abby Williams: Understudy
Aden Rice: Rosie
Lynsey Summers: Understudy
Genevieve Wilson: Lisa
Aubrey Harden: Ali
Caleb Clifford: Pepper
Cadence Cox: Eddie
Wesley Bethards: Father Alexandrios
If you go
Want to go? “Mamma Mia!” opens Thursday, April 14 at 7 p.m. and will be Friday, April 15 at 7 p.m. and Saturday April 16 at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Brown County High School Auditorium, 235 Schoolhouse Lane.
Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 to $7 for students.
For more information visit browncountytheatredepartment.com.
