Fox Valley high schools spring into song with musicals

Musical lovers will have their choice this weekend and next when young actors take to the stage at several Fox Valley high schools.

This weekend, Dundee-Crown High School will present the Cole Porter classic "Anything Goes," while Kaneland High School will stage "Singin' in the Rain." On April 27-29, West Aurora High School continues the trend with its production of "Guys and Dolls."

The Daily Herald talked to a few directors to find out what goes into producing a high school musical these days.

'Anything Goes'• 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 20-23

• Dundee-Crown High School, 1500 Kings Road, Carpentersville

• Tickets: $12 adults, $10 students/seniors; www.greateventsseats.com/dc

"We chose Anything Goes because it highlights the music of Cole Porter," said Lisa Bettcher, choir director at Dundee-Crown. "The challenge with this show is the large amount of dancing and tap."

The show features such songs as "Anything Goes," "You're the Top," and "I Get a Kick Out of You."

"Anything Goes" takes place on the S.S. American, which sails between New York and England with a comically colorful group of passengers. The cast includes Alyssa Weir as Reno Sweeney, Chase Nelson as Billy Crocker, Rachel Lind as Hope Harcourt, Ben Garcia as Sir Evelyn Oakleigh. Moonface Martin and Bonnie (his moll) are played by Lorimer Arteaga and Natalie Ruh.

For details, search for "dchstheatre" on Facebook.

'Singin' in the Rain'• 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 21-23

• Kaneland High School, 47W326 Keslinger Road, Maple Park

• Tickets: $10 adults, $5 students/seniors; free for Kaneland students/staff and preschoolers; khs.kaneland.org/

"We had a few reasons for choosing 'Singin' in the Rain,'" said director Christina Staker. "First, we knew we wanted to do a classical musical because it has been a few years since we have done one. Secondly, it is our choreographer Paula Frasz's 10th anniversary working with us and she requested a big dance show to celebrate. We later found out it is one of Paula's favorite shows, so it worked out perfectly."

Staker thinks audiences will enjoy the music and dance numbers. "The songs and dances are contagiously happy and upbeat," she said.

The show is not without its challenges.

"One of the challenges is that the show includes silent films and talkies, so for the first time ever we had to prerecord chunks of acting," Staker said. "While it was difficult to fit this into our schedule, it was a great experience for the students to practice acting for film rather than live theater.

Another challenge is that we really want to make it actually rain on stage, so my scenic designer and set builder have been hard at work trying to figure out the best way to do so without accidentally flooding the stage."

The lead roles are all played by seniors, with Jarod Kovach as Don Lockwood, Sabrina Massa as Kathy Seldon, Patrick Murphy as Cosmo Brown and Taylor Heiser as Lina Lamont.

'Guys and Dolls'• 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, April 27-29

• West Aurora High School, 1201 W. New York St., Aurora

• Tickets: $10 at sd129tickets.org

"I have always said I would produce 'Guys and Dolls' at some point," said lead artistic director Ken Ruffalo. "It was the first musical I ever saw when I was 9 years old, and I thought it was fun and exciting."

The musical follows gambler Nathan Detroit, who is struggling to find a location for his big craps game. After finding a location that requires a payment of $1,000 to use, he decides to bet his best friend, Sky Masterson, that Sky cannot get the virtuous and refined Sarah Brown to go out on a date with him. Despite a bit of resistance, Sky manages to get Sarah to agree to a date in exchange for bringing people into her mission. Meanwhile, Nathan's longtime fiancee, Adelaide, is pressuring him to finally commit to marrying her.

"I think the audience will enjoy the variety of characters and the humor," Ruffalo said."The song "'Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat'" is sure to be a crowd pleaser."

The show features Fabian Guerrero as Nathan Detroit, Megan Pawlak as Adelaide, Jake Ziman as Sky Masterson, Mary Currie as Sarah Brown and Dan Keller as Nicely Nicely Johnson.