VOLUME 16, ISSUE 8
JUNE 2022
MLWGS Drama Department Puts on Spring Musical: Chicago
By Aaliyah Avent
Photo: Albert Tang / Lucy Caudle and Bruce Yanovitch shine in the spotlight.During the month of April, the MLWGS drama department completed its preparations to create a wonderful show—its very own version of the musical Chicago. The play Chicago, originally written by Maurine Dallas Watkins, was adapted into a musical masterpiece by John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Bob Fosse. Chicago centers around the 1920s Chicago jazz scene and rising stars who became famous for both their stage talents and their criminal records. As the original piece does talk about more mature topics, it was modified for high school students across the country by David Thompson.
The drama department had a wonderful team to help bring the show to life, with a key member being Mr. Peter Cashwell, the faculty sponsor and producer. He played a major role in the planning that the audience did not get to see, such as hiring crew, purchasing props, and supporting the adults and students with their creative ideas. Despite this, he humbly said, “My primary job on a day-to-day basis was unlocking doors.”
Naturally, it took a lot to make the show come to life. “Chicago kind of started in mid-crisis,” Cashwell said. He proclaimed multiple reasons on why this happened, one of them being how, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the drama department had not done a full-blown show in two years. Additionally, Cashwell had never produced a full-scale musical in front of the MLWGS crowd. However, the biggest problem was that, at first, the musical did not even have a director available.
“I had to scramble to find someone with the necessary experience to take charge of the rehearsals, and luckily Maggie Roop was available,” Cashwell stated. From there, Roop found a music director, Mr. Jason Marks, and a choreographer, Mr. Anthony Cosby-Knowles. Together, they helped to create the spring musical.
Not only was there a great team who helped plan the stage acts, there was also a great technical team. The technical director was Mr. JC Bussard, who has years of experience running professional theater productions. With a combination of a magnificent light and sound team, the drama department pulled off the show in a grand manner.
“The students at Maggie Walker are great. I rarely had to explain something more than once and everyone got it. Everyone seemed to really enjoy what they were doing,” Bussard said. “Working with the students was my favorite thing about the show.”
Although there was a great team of students working on the technical aspects of the show, there were still some behind-the-scenes issues. Yuna Chen, a sophomore in the sound department, described, “Some behind-the-scenes issues included many things, from microphones dying to them being too loud. One problem that people may not have noticed was how hard it was to balance the volume of the mics. There was also the issue of mics getting hit during an actors' quick change which would change the sound.” Despite these problems arising, the actors and tech team persevered and problem-solved.
Yet another group that helped behind the scenes was the stage crew. The stage crew generally remains backstage during the show for wardrobe malfunctions, quick changes, and more. The crew was a huge aid to the cast, whose main leads were three juniors: Lucy Caudle, who played Roxie Hart, Caroline Johnson, who played Velma Kelly, and Bruce Yanovitch, who played Billy Flynn. Freshman Zachary Mazzo, a member of the crew, stated, “I think, for the short time the actors had to work on this show, they did spectacularly.” He then went on to say, “In the end, I’m very proud of everyone involved, and I am especially thankful for our absolutely astonishing stage manager, Katherine Hahn. She made the movement behind the stage less of a nightmare and more of a transforming experience.”
Regardless of the issues that arose in the days leading up to the show, Maggie Walker’s spring musical, Chicago, was a huge success thanks to its hard-working production team. There were two full houses on the show nights, and many people gave astoundingly positive feedback about the performance. The actors really brought life to the characters they played, surely making the show a memorable experience and a perfect way to end the school’s production season.
Photo: Albert Tang / Eddie Williams.