Backstage glance

While the cast's shoot-outs and resounding tunes entertain the audience during performances, there's another production backstage at "Annie Get Your Gun" that rarely gets seen by an audience.

Until now.

The Southeast Missourian took a look backstage last week during a dress rehearsal of the Central High School performance. The play by Irving Berlin was presented Thursday through Saturday at the high school auditorium.

Most audience members realize that actors have to dress in costume or wear makeup while on stage. But what they don't see are the students who spend more than 12 hours on campus attending class, practicing songs and getting dressed for a show.

Two days before opening night, Andrew Stone and Dane Lincoln were still putting the finishing touches on the set, which was constructed by the students. Each cast member has to work on set design also.

Some cast members came to the last dress rehearsal Wednesday just minutes after leaving practice on the baseball field. They changed into costumes while drama teacher Cindy Bradshaw talked about the previous evening's performance.

The student cast spent time practicing dance steps and sang lines from the songs as they dressed for the play. A visitor walking in the hall between the dressing rooms and the stage door would likely hear a snippet of every song sung in the show.

Meanwhile, Doris Wolford twirled her gun as if it were a baton, practicing just one more time before the show. She cut the skin on her thumb just before rehearsal.

This performance was the last for many of the school's seniors, who will graduate in May. But for other students, the musical show was the beginning of a love affair with the theater.

Catherine Moreton had never seen "Annie Get Your Gun" live but fell in love with the story and performing. "It will be sad when it's over," she said Wednesday.

Everyone is nervous

A newcomer to the high school performance, Moreton is an eighth-grade student at Central Junior High School. Finding time for school, homework and rehearsals has left her schedule cramped, but the sacrifice is worth it.

Auditions were a "little scary," she said. "But I knew everybody would be nervous."

Working with props and getting everything right before opening night posed the greatest challenge, Moreton said. "There still a couple little things with the props we have to make sure are right."

Moreton played one of Annie's sisters during the show. During the last scene, guns, which should have been adequate for everyone, were snatched up by just a few people so the students had to pass them around during rehearsal.

But that got fixed before an audience came to see the show.

Bradshaw said the show is not hers, but the students'. She just tries to guide them to offer the best performance they can give. "I give them the tools to make it good."

With new cast members and first-time performers, "there's a substantial amount of teaching," Bradshaw said. But there's really no way to teach someone about proper stage presence.

Edgar Palacios, a sophomore, didn't really consider everything that a musical encompasses. While he loved the songs in the show, he didn't really think much about having to learn dance steps. He played several minor roles in the performance.

And there were plenty of lessons to be taught, said Becky Komorech, a senior who served as the show's choreographer.

Regardless, the show will go on.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126