A Peek Behind the Curtain: Making of the Unionville Musical, Newsies

Few people know all the effort put in behind the curtain to make a show like Newsies happen. Audiences enjoy a two hour performance and marvel at what they see, the company of performers, crew, and directors dedicated their lives for months to make the show happen. The cast stayed after school to learn songs, dances, and how to fully embody their character. The crew spent hours constructing the set from scratch, painting, and practicing movements so the show ran smoothly. The adults involved with the production made the show possible, the directors aided the performers on learning lines, musical numbers, costumes, along with helping the crew with building Many of the parents volunteered to help provide meals, decorate the lobby, as well as run concessions and candygrams during the performances.  It's clear how much effort   everyone involved put towards this musical, and how proud they were with the show.

The cast has been rehearsing since mid-December spending two-three hours after school most days and up to eight hours during tech week. The cast is divided into sections, and although some are not in the spotlight as much, all are equally as important. Those who played main characters had significantly more lines to learn and songs to memorize, but the ensemble put in just as much effort with dances, songs, and creating the atmosphere. Two weeks before the show marks a critical date for those involved; tech week. Tech week is when actors need to be off book,with the set built, and costumes fitted. Going into tech week all the actors had a strong sense of who their characters were and how to best bring them to life. There were multiple dance numbers in the musical, all of which required learning; for some it was learning placement, for others complicated choreography, but the most impressive was all those who learned how to tap dance. For the King of New York dance numbers. There were nearly forty kids tap dancing. What may come as a shock to most people is that only ten of them knew how to tap dance prior to this show. This is just one of the several examples of how much effort was put into this show behind the curtain,  but it wouldn't have felt like 1900’s New York without the crew. 

The crew is in charge of constructing the set, painting, and making sure everything's where it needs to be. When rehearsals started the stage was barren, the crew was given an outline of what the set should look like, and tons of plywood. The main structures of the set were built in about two weeks, with the crew showing up after school and spending hours building four, seven foot platforms to line the back of the stage. The set also consisted of many moving pieces, some smaller that stayed backstage when not in use, and others that were part of the structure built. There were six foot platforms that got moved during certain scenes, such as Santa Fe, Something to Remember, and the opening scene. The moving platforms had people underneath who moved them to center stage and stayed under them for the scene, but that's not the only moving part of the set. There were also functional stairs that had five different positions to be in and were constantly shifting throughout the show to represent different locations. Constructing the set was one thing but the crew was also tasked with painting. The crew painted details onto every visible part of the set.

 None of this would have been possible if not for all the teachers, parents and directors who oversaw this production.The parents, teachers, and directors who supported the students during this show, are a huge part of why these kids could put on a performance like Newsies. The parents who help with high school productions do a lot of work, a decent amount of which goes unrecognized. Parents provide dinners and lunches for those involved with the musical during tech week, and longer days. They also decorated the lobby for the show, which this time involved covering every open wall space with newspapers, the lobby was decorated with around four thousand papers, taking nearly ten hours to put them all up. During the show parents ran tickets, selling a total of 2,225 tickets with the fifth most ticket sales since 2012. Along with tickets they also helped with  concessions, and candy grams. Candy grams are a tradition with the theater program, especially among cast and crew members. During the shows all the students involved get a paper bag with their name put on a table for people to leave notes and candy in, majority of cast and crew will buy candy for their friends in the show, or people who made a difference to them. The directors also played a huge part in the show.  There were six main staff members helping with everything. Ray Crozier was the director for the show, it was his first year directing for Unionville and will be returning next year for Mama Mia. Margret Moran was the choreographer for the show, teaching students how to tap dance, and creating intricate musical numbers. Dr. Zumpeda, who is the choir director at Unionville, was managing the vocal aspects of the show. Mr. McWilliams, the band director, was conducting for the pit, and the students who performed live music. Mama B was in charge of costumes and props, making sure everyone had what they needed, and everything fit. Mr. Berkeihiser (Berk) oversaw stage crew, making sure the set was stable and helping out with the building. Thanks to all these people, Newsies was as spectacular as it could be. 

Everyone who was a part of Newsies dedicated their lives to the production for a couple months, giving their all to put on a spectacular production. The cast spent hours memorizing lines, learning dance, and becoming their characters. The crew painted, building the set from the ground up and transported the audience to 1900’s New York. All the adults who helped with the show fostered an environment where the students could act and build to the best of their abilities. Newsies was a production that took so much but gave a tremendous amount more in return, especially to some students. While talking to Markus McMackin during intermission, he shared about his experience with the musical and how much it meant to those involved.  “I’ve been a part of so many other things, but when I joined the musical and was on stage it felt like home.”