Time to Come Under the Spell of The Witches
Singleton High’s school musical in 2022 zapped Kristina Lowe’s energy.
The drama teacher admits she was at a point that she didn’t think she could come up with a new script even if she wanted to.
But that moment of hesitation was very short lived when student Sophia Crompton suggested they do something around Roald Dahl’s The Witches.
Instantly Kristina found a whole heap of songs coming into her head.
“I went ‘Oh No’,” Kristina said adding that her mind started filling with ideas for a storyline for the 2023 production.
Her new-found enthusiasm was soon shared by music teachers Matt Edwards and Rebecca Luscombe with fellow teachers Melinda Latona building the sets and Amanda Fenwick in charge of costumes.
Kristina has written Singleton High’s musical for the past nine years simply because the cost of taking on an existing production is too expensive.
She describes The Witches as very, very loosely based upon Roald Dahl’s book.
“It is a silly show this year and I thought what era has been the silliest and we couldn’t go past the music from the 80s,” Kristina said.
“We have the rock of Metallica and Guns and Roses and then 99 Red Balloons and Let’s Get Physical where the performers have all the hair of the 80s and the iconic exercise gear,” Kristina said.
Total Eclipse of the Heart has the leads dressed as mice with a stage crawling with remote controlled rodents and the giggles from the students does suggest the show is definitely silly.
Over past years the school musical has often appealed to a particular genre or age group but this year’s show will have the audience ranging from pre-schoolers to residents from aged care homes with those involved confident it will appeal to all ages.
Some 80 students from Years 7 to 12 are involved including those on stage, the band and those involved backstage.
Rehearsals began back in term two with the students foregoing their sports lessons and in the past week full day rehearsals have been rocking the school’s multipurpose building.
The show will be performed at 6:30pm on November 22, 23 and 24. Tickets are $5 for students, $10 adults and $25 a family and are available at https://www.trybooking.com/CMQVX