By ANNIE WORSFOLD
As the date draws near, news about this year’s musical, The Sound of Plaid, is floating around. Whether it’s because your friends can’t hang out with you because they’ve got a 12 hour practice to attend to, or you’ve been hearing the choir kids singing in practice for this production, you’ve heard about it. However, this year’s musical is less well known than Rent, Grease, or Into the Woods. Unfortunately, this is not a stage production of Portlandia and does not channel modern hipsters in a land where the 90s never died. Fortunately, it does have a unique and interesting storyline which is just as likely to suck you into coming to the show next weekend.
This year’s musical is a high school interpretation of the 1990 Broadway play, Forever Plaid. The play focuses on typical cliques and stereotypes of the 60s, channeling “The Plaids,” a group of kids who, while anticipating the production of their first album, and whilst on their way to go see the Beatle’s Debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, collide with a bus full of catholic schoolgirls. The play opens with their return from the afterlife for one last shot at music.
The choir students performing in the musical this year seem to have conflicting thoughts about the play. “It’s fun,” said Damon Del Toro, “But I wish we would have chosen something different.” Del Toro has a few solos throughout the play, but when asked about the main cast members, this year’s play seemed to be more laid back than previous years where the cast list was a much greater ordeal. I asked Jonas Noomah, a junior also in the production, about who would be the shining stars of this year’s musical. “Like, half the choir,” he replied with a shrug.
The most concerning part of this production for the kids is that they’re underprepared. “I feel like it’s inevitable for us to feel more unprepared than we actually are, and we will pull it off fine,” said Noomah. Upon hearing other opinions, Axel Gillam who will be doing stage work and make brief appearances throughout the play stated that “I definitely feel more skeptical about the performance this year than I have in previous years. Sure, we always feel underprepared. But this year it might actually be something to worry about.” Sydney Paulino, a senior, joked, “You should come to the last show. Chances are we’ll have it memorized by then.” However, with a week more of extensive rehearsals, the students should have nothing to worry about when it comes to the final product.
Despite the students’ feelings about preparation, opening night draws nearer. The Sound of Plaid is only a week away. This exciting, new, and unknown play is only showing three times- once on Friday night and twice on Saturday- so get your tickets while they last!