After months of hard work and rehearsals, the Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) is ready for its biennial musical.School of Rock will be performed on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., and on Sunday at 2 p.m. All performances will be at the ECS cafetorium.
School of Rock features the talents of 34 students who are part of the cast, 11 more who work in the backstage crew, and 15 cosmetology students who are involved with makeup and hair. Another 24 staff helpers and volunteers from the community are also involved with the production.
A pit band will accompany the vocalists and play music between scenes.Evanne Wilhelm, who directs the show alongside ECS music teacher Kyle Whitehead, said the dress rehearsals have been going very well.
“We just had a huge weekend (of rehearsing),” said Wilhelm. “We were there for three days. It was a big marathon rehearsal. The kids are anxious to get in front of an audience and they are ready to go.”
Wilhelm called School of Rock a modern musical, based on the 2003 movie starring Jack Black. Student Levi Stepp, who has the lead role of Dewey Finn, bases his character on Black’s portrayal of Finn, and another student, Abby Hanna, does the same for her portrayal of Joan Cusack’s Rosalie Mullins character.
Songs should appeal to adults in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
“The music is really reflective of bands like AC/DC, Motley Crue, KISS, Rush and the Rolling Stones, all of those kinds of bands,” said Wilhelm. “It doesn’t have actual songs from them, but you will hear little snipets of some of those bands.”
Music lovers who are fans of those bands will enjoy School of Rock, she said, even if they’re not a fan of musicals.
ECS student Tyler Knibbs has created video projection to create the images for some of the sets, which hasn’t been done for the sets.
Students have been busy promoting School of Rock. They performed parts of the musical at the gala supper for the St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation’s Festival of Trees on Saturday night, and donated a dollar from every ticket sold that night to the hospital foundation.
They also performed at a pep rally on Monday morning at the school, and they will have a showing for local students in Grades 5 to 8 on Wednesday.
“The Festival of Trees performance was amazing because we were so fortunate they allowed us to be there and be part of that experience, because it got the word out,” said Wilhelm.
There are a few tweaks that need to be made, Wilhelm said, and changes will be made until the last show on Sunday. They can always work on skills and on character development.
“We never call it a perfect project; it’s more about the process than it is the end result,” Wilhelm said.
Wilhelm stressed that the profits from this year’s production will be used to make the next musical in two years possible. At least half of the tickets for this year need to be sold to have enough money for the next musical.
Ticket sales are going well, she said, but a lot of tickets are still available. Saturday night’s performance has been the most popular.
VIP tables are already sold out.
Tickets can be purchased at Pharmasave.
