By Gabriel Brogan

Sitting at a dining room table on a Sunday morning, McCaskey senior Annika Locke retains only traces of her larger-than-life stage persona. This year, she took on the lead female role of Julia in McCaskey’s ambitious production of The Wedding Singer. 

She smiles wistfully. “I only auditioned for Julia. I knew Mrs. Wolanin (the director) would find a place for me no matter what role I was called back for.” 

Though Annika was one of the stars of the show, she was eager to credit Mrs. Wolanin, who has served as McCaskey’s stage director since the 2022 production of Newsies. “She’s a wonderful director, she has a vision and she gets it done.” Annika recalls how Wolanin would motivate the cast. “She kept saying ‘this is the biggest musical McCaskey’s ever gonna do.’”

The Wedding Singer certainly was the most ambitious piece to be featured in Annika’s storied McCaskey career. Multiple set pieces, disco lighting, special effects, a car, these are just a few of the production elements that made The Wedding Singer stand out. After playing the lead, Katherine, in Newsies, understudying for the lead, Gabriela, in High School Musical, and playing one of the female leads, Rena Sweeney, in Anything Goes, Annika said confidently that The Wedding Singer was her favorite. “There were a lot of cool moving parts we hadn’t had before. The band, for one, was amazing.” 

As a graduating senior however, what Annika remembers most fondly about The Wedding Singer was the family the cast built together. “Everyone wants everyone else to succeed. We have a lot of people who’ve never done musicals before, a lot of people who have. We have a good time, and get really close together.”

It’s hard work though, as Annika can attest. The cast and crew got to work in December, and hit the ground running with auditions. From then on, says Annika “It’s a lot of late nights, a lot of weekends.” 

Looking back after all that hard work has come to fruition, Annika knows parts of her last musical at McCaskey were bittersweet. “We all cried singing the Alma Mater before the show.” Overall though, Annika says, “I’m really happy with what I’ve seen at McCaskey over the last 4 years…we have a special place here.”