This year, the musical theatre and the new technical theatre class are collaborating to put on James and the Giant Peach. The opening night is November 28th.

The addition of a technical theatre class has created a totally different dynamic for the production. Technical theatre teaches students all the skills they need to behind-the-scenes theatre work, including lighting, stage makeup, and sewing costumes.

Students were motivated to join technical theatre for multiple reasons.

Josiah Acosta, a senior, was motivated to join because he loves working with people that want to know how backstage works. Nile Dillard, a freshman, agrees.

“It’s a good class for people who want to work on the play but can’t sing and dance.”

Before technical theater was added the people who worked backstage had to take time out of their days to work on it after school. The sets and props were made by the people in musical theater before but now there are entire crews for the show in technical theater.

Dominic Cullen, a sophomore that is playing James, said that James and the Giant Peach is the most “thought out” musical he’s participated in and he is looking forward to this different style.

“I’m looking forward to seeing it in action,” Acosta said. “This show has a lot of technical challenges.”

One of the biggest challenges in the set for the technical theatre class, in particular, is the peach, which has to grow onstage. There are two technical theater classes and one musical theater class, so there are also problems trying to get everything done, as the tasks for each of the crews must be split up into the two classes. A big problem for the costume crew is that they can not measure or fit anyone during school because the classes are in different periods.

Chris Lohmeier who is playing Ladahlord, the narrator, thinks there are pros and cons to the new process.

“Rehearsals are all during the school day, so we have much less formal rehearsal time. There’s a much higher expectation for students in the class to practice on their own, and more pressure on us since we won’t just be performing at the elementary schools.” They will now be performing it at the school.

While all the challenges and problems are still being fixed and figured out, everyone is looking forward to a great musical and are working hard to create it.