BROWNSTOWN

Moving from Chicago to the small town of Bomont with his mother after his father abandons them, Ren McCormack tries to fit in but finds himself at odds with those he encounters.

That includes the Rev. Shaw Moore, who has convinced the town to outlaw dancing. As a teenage boy, Ren finds that unbelievable.

With the help of Ariel, the reverend’s daughter, and Willard, a country boy who becomes his best friend, Ren convinces the reverend to let the teenagers dance. In the process, he helps the town heal from a tragedy that affected them all.

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That’s the synopsis of the musical “Footloose,” and the Brownstown Central High School choral department is ready to present it to the school and community.

Performances are set for 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday and at 5 p.m. Saturday in the high school auditorium. Tickets are $10 and may be purchased in advance from any principal cast member or at The Peoples Bank, Family Drug or Ewing Unique & Boutique, all in Brownstown.

While she likes the storyline, director Stephanie Brock said she loves the music.

“I was a teenager in the ’80s, so I remember all of that music being on the radio,” she said. “It just wasn’t popular in the movie, it was popular on the radio, and they have kept a lot of the same songs in the musical version.”

She also likes the choreography in the musical version. Brownstown graduate and Indiana University student Morgan Myers has helped the students with choreography.

“She’s fantastic,” Brock said. “She has a great rapport with the children, and they respond well to her when she’s communicating to them, and she’s just very creative, so we’re lucky to have her.”

Brock said the dancing and high energy of the show appealed to the students last year when she was trying to decide which musical to do.

“I had thought about ‘Footloose,’ but I really thought I would push that further out a few years,” she said. “But with as much interest as I saw there, I thought, ‘Surely, they are going to work hard and do a good job if their heart is in it.’ That honestly is what swayed me to go ahead and do it this soon.”

The school has only done “Footloose” one other time — about 10 years ago, Brock said.

In November, students auditioned for four judges, and then Brock met with the judges to determine the best fit for each character.

Parts were announced in December, and the principal cast received scripts in hopes they would study them over Christmas break. There were a couple of rehearsals before the break, and then they hit the ground running in January with chorus rehearsals twice a week, principal cast rehearsals three nights per week and choreography on Saturday mornings.

In February, everyone practiced Monday through Thursday nights and continued with choreography on Saturday mornings.

“This is another group that I had when I was their elementary teacher, and now, I have them as their high school teacher, so that’s always fun for me to see them at this stage in life and where they are at and how they’ve grown in a lot of different ways and matured,” Brock said.

It’s particularly special for Brock because her daughter, Carley, is a senior, so this is her last opportunity to be in a musical.

“It has been fun to have time with her because this takes so much time to put something like this together, so it’s nice to have her on board and a part of that,” Stephanie said. “This principal cast, they are great kids, they want to be here, they want to work hard and they want to be proud when it’s all said and done. It makes life a lot easier when you have kids who are passionate about it.”

Carley said she did hair and makeup and helped the stage crew her sophomore year and was in the chorus last year, so she thought it was time to audition for one of the lead roles as a senior.

She plays the role of Ariel’s best friend, Rusty.

“She’s pretty much this fun-loving, pretty free-spirited, kind of an airhead,” Carley said. “She kind of encourages Ariel to be loud, but then she’ll kind of pull her back in and back to reality.”

Ariel is played by junior Olivia Barlow.

“At first, I was kind of scared just because she’s a little bit scandalous, and that’s not who I portray myself to be. I’m like, ‘Man, I don’t want people to think this is who I am,'” Barlow said.

“But I’ve loved acting since I was a little kid, and so I’ve just got to think, ‘This isn’t me. This is someone I’m portraying to be on the stage,'” she said. “I was open-minded, and I’m like, ‘I had so much fun in the musical last year, any character can be fun. It’s just what you make out of it.’ I’m just very thankful and very humbled to have a part in this musical.”

For the second year in a row, Noah Reynolds has a lead role. The senior is playing Ren.

“He’s a rebel,” Reynolds said. “He doesn’t like authority that much and people kind of laying him down. He likes doing his own thing. He doesn’t like being told what to do.”

Since he had never seen either of the “Footloose” movies, Reynolds said he watched them to get into his character.

“For the most part, I do like to abide by the rules,” he said smiling about playing Ren.

Senior Kylen Terry plays the role of Willard. That character also is different from his personality.

“Willard is kind of somebody that thinks with his fist before his mind,” Terry said.

Senior Jenny Runge plays the role of the reverend’s wife, Vi.

“She’s supposed to be very submissive, very quiet, very much follows what her husband says,” she said. “But as you go through the musical, she has this little spark that she wants to not obey, and she wants to be heard and be spoken, so she’s really an undervalued character because she’s actually very strong, I think one of the strongest people within the cast.”

Now, it’s time for the students to put on the show.

“It’s definitely very stressful, but it’s so rewarding here at the end to see everybody kind of step out of their comfort zone and just have fun and be a team and work as a team,” Carley said.

Barlow said the cast has come a long way.

“People pay to see this. I want to give a good performance,” she said. “I know that we’ll do a good job at it. I’m pretty excited for everything.”

Reynolds said the high energy of the show should appeal to the audience.

“‘Footloose’ is a very popular movie. Lots of people have seen it, and hopefully, everyone performs with all of that high energy and just has fun with it,” he said. “Like a concert, if you’re going and watching a band and they have high energy, usually, the crowd has high energy. I think I speak for everybody saying we all just want to put on a good show for people to watch.”

Runge said she is ready to see everyone’s hard work show onstage.

“People don’t realize how much time we spend here with rehearsals and getting everything put together,” she said. “I think it’s going to be a really great show overall, and it will be very exciting.”

Terry said he expects the cast to put on a good show for the audience.

“If they would get anything out of the show, it’s to loosen up and cut footloose,” he said, smiling.

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What: “Footloose”

When: 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 5 p.m. Saturday

Where: Brownstown Central High School auditorium, 500 N. Elm St., Brownstown

Cost: $10 (tickets available in advance from any principal cast member or at The Peoples Bank, Family Drug or Ewing Unique & Boutique, all in Brownstown; for reserved seating, contact Stephanie Brock at 812-358-3453)

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Director: Stephanie Brock

Assistant director: Alisha Griffin

Light and sound technicians: Marcia Anderson and Aaron Wright

Costume manager: Crystal Stuckwisch

Seamstresses: Maxine Brock and Kristin Norman

Set design and construction: Blake Hackman and his classes and Brian LeMarr

Choreographer: Morgan Myers

Student helpers: Kaylee Jo Branaman and Riley Nuss

Dance captain: Kiley Stidham

Spotlights: Emmalee Jolley and Anika Ross

Stage crew: Kellie Burchett, Christopher Davidson, Brooklyn Gastineau, Maddie Huber, Tucker O’Neill, Kylie Reynolds, Josh Rogers, Ashley Teipen, Andrew Wheeles and Lauren Wood

Backstage assistants: Sarah Foist, Carolyn Jones, Riley Nuss and Crystal Stuckwisch

Ren McCormack: Noah Reynolds

Ariel Moore: Olivia Barlow

Willard: Kylen Terry

Rusty: Carley Brock

The Rev. Shaw Moore: Evan Rohlfing

Vi Moore: Jenny Runge

Ethel McCormack: Maddy Jones

Chuck Cranston: Dane Darlage

Urleen: Laney Warren

Wendy Jo: Karol Baker

Lyle: Keggin York

Travis: Conner Adams

Bickle: Jacob Reedy

Garvin: Richie Ruddick

Wes Warnicker: Micah Ballard

Lulu Warnicker: Emma Johnson

Coach Roger Dunbar: Jackson Lahrman

Eleanor Dunbar: Katie Rohlfing

Town Cop/Cowgirl Band: Cherokee Scott

Principal Clark: Alyssa Acton

Cowgirl Bobbi: Kiley Baker

Cowgirl Band: Morgan Jones and Lexi Williams

Musical chorus: Cara Baker, Maci Bell, Denise Brock, Hunter Clampitt, KaCee Collins, Alison Deaton, Destiny Duncan, Tiara Edwards, Destiny Faught, Ashlyn Fox, MaKenna Gholson, Haylee Gullion, Kim Henline, Emily Hinds, Charity Hodge, Abi Isaacs, Kaelyn Johnson, Jerusha Kerkhof, Jennifer Kramer, Shawna Luenebrink, Abbie Reynolds, Alli Reynolds, Brianna Reynolds, Abby Schoenherr, Jetta Shelton, Kylene Spall, Kiley Stidham, Rehgen Stuckwisch, Aubree VanCoutren, Alex Wade, Logan Weddle, Olivia Whan, Klarissa Wilburn and Kailey Wischmeier

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