Highland teachers write original musical for students
Highland Middle School students will perform live in an interactive musical written by staff members of the Libertyville school, which will allow the audience to follow the central plot and then engage with the actors in subplots being held in breakout rooms of the virtual show.
The musical, "Remotely Interested," is about a young businessman who needs to fall in love before his birthday to receive his inheritance. The audience follows the young man with only hours left to complete the task on his birthday. The show, with 33 student cast members, features several songs, including Delaney Rybicki performing "Because I Care" and "It Had To Be You," River Thompson singing "I Want a Girl," and Caroline Guiard performing the original song "If I Only."
The shows will be at 6:15 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, May 6, 7, and 8; 8:15 p.m. May 7 and 8; and 2:30 p.m. May 8. Tickets are $10 and available at www.eventbrite.com/o/allie-luka-6238317671.
"The musical has four original songs ('If I Only,' 'Another Zoom Thing,' 'Another Zoom Thing Reprise' and the 'Welcome Song') with lyrics written by Shelby and her husband (Joe), and I wrote the melodies and accompaniment to go underneath," said Highland Middle School music teacher Angela Roeser when crediting the show to drama teacher Shelby Burton.
"The other four (songs) are in the public domain and have been adapted for our show. The students have enjoyed being a part of the creative process."
Because of the time lag over the internet on the full cast songs, they have been prerecorded for the show.
Although they've never written a full musical before, Roeser and Burton said they wanted to do it for the students.
"We took on this project of writing our own musical to highlight the wonderful talent we have here at HMS," Roeser said.
But the work, Burton said, was not easy.
"Theater educators around the world are struggling to find a way to give performance and crew opportunities to theater students, who at this time more than ever need theater," Burton said.
Last year, the school worked with "The Show Must Go Online," which had students recording their parts, and Burton editing the videos and posting the performance online.
"For Highland, doing another performance like last year was not something the students really wanted to do," Burton said. "They wanted to be in front of a live audience ... Live theater is live theater and there is nothing like it."
But to do so during a global pandemic meant it had to be held virtually.
Working virtually all school year, Burton knew she could make a play that was interactive and take audience members to breakout rooms, much like she uses while teaching.
"I wrote three scripts for each part of the show," she said. "The benefit of being the writer is as the students rehearse we can change lines and add things. When you have a play someone else wrote you can't do that due to copyright. I made sure all the characters' names were gender fluid so anyone could play almost any role. It has been a different process than I have ever done, but what matters is the kids are excited."
Even though the performance is virtual, students will appear in costumes designed by Libertyville High School costume designer Sarah Lester. Credit also should be given to 15 crew members who edited videos and created graphics for the show, as well as Caren Kimbarovsky, a District 70 technology literacy coach, who was the show's tech director.
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