The production of High School Musical by McCaskey’s performing arts program has become the talk of the school. The cast and crew have been working hard since January with the hope to produce a musical as good or even better as last year’s production, Newsies. The casting has been different from years prior in the sense that there were new faces to the musical, both behind and on the stage.The musical follows the story of Gabriella Montez (Sheilah Santiago) and Troy Bolton (Owen Wilson) and their journey of breaking the “status quo”. Other McCaskey clubs and groups were featured in the musical as the step team, cheerleaders, etc were brought to the stage and sprinkled throughout the performance.

I personally believe that High School Musical the musical had a fantastic performance, from the actors onstage to the crew backstage. I liked how this year they really represented our McCaskey family throughout, which made it feel closer to home. The show started off with drumline, color guard, and cheerleaders, along with the actors, demonstrating our McCaskey pride and Wildcat spirit.

It was a big surprise seeing other students who wouldn’t normally perform or just new faces on the stage, such as the leads this year never seen on stage before. I asked Sheilah Santiago what made her interested in auditioning in the musical this year. Santiago replied “I always had a love of musicals and I’ve always wanted to be in one at school but I just never had the courage until this year, I had to get out of my little bubble of shyness to finally participate in the musical.” I follow up with what it was like being on stage for the first time, especially having a lead role. She answered with, “I had so many people in my corner making me feel comfortable and confident enough to keep going.” Although she did not expect to land the lead role, she had a fun experience throughout the production. 

I loved how they incorporated our very own WMCC morning announcements onto the projector by switching out each broadcaster to show our whole morning announcements crew. They even add our iconic “30 seconds to class” followed by the bell. They really made the audience feel like we were actually in the high school performance, in addition to having the performers not just use the stage but the row spaces too. Giving some of the audience props and cues having them engaged in the performance made both the actors and viewers more lively. 

However, High School Musical the Musical did have some technical difficulties. On Saturday night, the mics weren’t aligning with the speakers at times- it either was too loud or too quiet. Nonetheless, the actors handled the situation at hand very well and eventually it went very smoothly. It could have been because of those who used their phone throughout the performance since cell phones can interfere with wireless microphones. So remember next time: please be polite and turn off your cell phone. 

Some could also argue that High School Musical is meant for a middle school performance but either way the students did amazing making it McCaskey’s own. Personally, I felt High School Musical was cringey at some points because of the script, having the main character be “star crossed lovers” in a high school drama, while showing all the cliques in the school. However, it is understandable and may relate to some students but it just wasn’t for me. 

I asked some people from the musical what they thought of High School Musical. Sonii Bora who played Ms. Darbus replied saying “I think we did a great job! Every year there’s always a short buzz around the school about the musical that usually lasts 2-3 days. This year, the chatter hasn’t stopped and I even got messages via Schoology from former teachers telling me a job well done.”  Kaylie Gingerich from the stage crew gave me the inside scoop of what was happening to the props. “Backstage went really smoothly, every prop was organized into their own spot such as the basketball hoops and the seats. I really like that they had pom-poms and foaming fingers for people, I really liked the confetti cannons too.” 

All in all, they ended the night with a standing ovation and a round of applause. My favorite part was the confetti cannons celebrating everyone who had a part to play in and out of the High School Musical the musical production.