By: Annabel Dobash ’23
Wyoming Seminary’s fall musical has long been a campus tradition, but Covid 19 hampered large scale productions for two years. Now, their mainstage production is back in full swing. This year, the company performed Bright Star; a Tony Nominated musical based on true events.
The musical tells the story of Alice Murphy, an editor in Nashville as she meets a young soldier who is seeking success in writing and discovers family ties. It was co-written by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell who penned the bluegrass score.
Sem’s production featured Ainsley Eidam ‘23 as Alice Murphy, Liam Phillips-McGraw ‘23 as Jimmy Ray Dobbs, Michael Vodzak ‘24 as Billy Cane, Holly Egbert ‘23 as Margo Crawford, David Getz ‘24 as Daddy Murphy, and Olivia Stevens ‘23 as Mama Murphy.
The set included an elaborate moving house that was built by Floyd Bussie, the technical director. Working with the house was the high point of David Getz’s ‘24 rehearsal process.
Auditions took place on September 8th and the cast list was released on September 11th. Official rehearsals began on September 13th. Since then, the cast of over 30 people has been hard at work learning blocking, choreography, and music.
Last year the rehearsal process was six months long, but this year it was shortened to three months. Eidam describes the short rehearsal process as “crazy, we went from the second day of school to the fourth of November rehearsing and then the show goes up. It’s much shorter, so we have so much more to pack into it, and it’s been a lot stricter.” Despite the limited time, Eidam says that “I find that music [rehearsals]are so inspiring and uplifting, it’s the highlight of my day.”
The cast entered tech rehearsals on October 29th where they met everyday from one to six pm. Bright Star opened., November 4th and ran through Sunday November 6th. Getz is looking forward to “hearing the reactions at the end of act one, I think it will definitely be interesting, but also the opening because I don’t think it will be what a lot of people are expecting it to be.”