BROWNSTOWN
Josh Rogers was among the cast members of Brownstown Central High School’s production of “The Wizard of Oz” who only got to perform one show in 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the other public performances being canceled.
“It was upsetting, especially knowing that a lot of my good friends were seniors, but I was really glad that we just got one show in,” he said. “To this day, one of the most emotional nights was the next day when we were all saying our goodbyes because it was way sooner than we thought.”
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Click here to purchase photos from this galleryWhile it was sad to see everything end so abruptly, Rogers was fortunate to have one final year of high school to be onstage.
This school year has consisted of eLearning and a hybrid schedule, but Rogers and other Brownstown students are now fully back in person.
That means this year’s musical, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” will go on as planned Thursday through Saturday.
As with many things over the past year, it will look different, as tickets are not being presold, there’s a maximum of 378 people in the auditorium for each show and the shows will be livestreamed for a fee on the school website.
Tickets are $10 and may be purchased from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at the auditorium box office. Any remaining tickets will be sold an hour before each of the four performances. The show times are 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday and noon and 5 p.m. Saturday.
“We wanted to give as many people the opportunity to see the show as we could, so not knowing what capacity levels were going to be, we decided to add the matinee,” co-director Alisha Griffin said.
Rogers doesn’t mind the changes because he and the rest of the cast will have an opportunity to do all of the performances.
“I was ecstatic because this is also one of my absolute favorite musicals,” he said. “I’ve been trying to get them to do this for years, so it was really good for me to know that I’m going out with a musical that I love.”
The show is set in the 1850s. Milly, a pretty young cook portrayed by senior Rehgen Stuckwisch, marries Adam, a grizzled woodsman played by Rogers, after a brief courtship. When the two return to Adam’s farm, Milly is shocked to meet his six ill-mannered brothers, all of whom live in his cabin. She promptly begins teaching the brothers proper behavior, and most importantly, how to court a woman.
But after the brothers kidnap six local girls during a town barn-raising, a group of indignant villagers tries to track them down.
“Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” was released as a movie in 1954.
“It has always been just hilarious. It’s something that’s unexpected,” Rogers said of what drew him to the show. “It’s a classic, but most people don’t even think of it, so it doesn’t come to mind. It’s just something I think people will really enjoy.”
Stuckwisch said once she became familiar with the show, she knew she wanted to audition.
“Not a lot of people know about it, and I’ve had teachers asking what it’s about, and I’ll explain it to them,” she said. “No one really has seen it, so I think that will be a fun thing for the community is just to see something new.”
Stuckwisch said she feels students were cast in the right roles.
“I feel like with picking this musical, a lot of the people that we have, their personalities that they have to portray in this musical are honestly them in real life,” she said. “It’s honestly a pretty natural show, I would say. It was a great selection.”
She said it’s a fun show with a lot of singing.
“Our singing this year, especially our boy numbers, is going to definitely give everybody cold chills,” Stuckwisch said. “A lot of the little kids will enjoy it. It’s very interactive. There is lots of dancing, lots of very action-packed dancing, so it’s definitely going to be an eye-catcher, for sure.”
Rogers and Stuckwisch both are seasoned performers. Rogers went from serving on the stage crew as a freshman to being in the principal cast his final three years of high school, while Stuckwisch did musicals in fourth and fifth grades and is in her fourth high school musical.
“It has just been really fun,” Rogers said. “It’s just enjoying the music as well as the acting side of it. We really become like a family afterward. It’s so emotional the last night after we’re done. The seniors that are leaving, it really hits you hard that it’s over with then.”
Stuckwisch said she has always been excited about the musical season, especially this year being a senior.
“A large portion of the musical this year is senior members, so we’re a very close-knit group, and we’re all really excited about it,” she said.
Griffin said it took awhile for everyone involved with the show to know the capabilities, and they were glad to be able to move forward with public performances.
“I think the further we got into the musical season, the excitement has grown on the kids,” she said. “At first, everybody was kind of holding back waiting to see what happens, but they’ve been so great. We missed a week because of snow days and had eLearning. We did a Google Meet with the principal cast and kept reading through lines. We didn’t fall behind, and the kids worked on their own, and they’ve just been awesome.”
She said it’s good to see things return to normal for the students.
“The kids are all back in school now every day, and just the morale of the kids has become so much better,” Griffin said. “They are seeing their friends daily, they’ve got stuff to look forward to and I think that these kids are very passionate about what they do, so they’re happy to present this to the community.”
Being onstage this year, Rogers said he gives the glory to God, and he and the cast say a prayer before performing.
“I feel like I lucked out with the people that I get to work with,” he said. “Each year that I’ve been a part of it, it has turned out very well. I just feel very privileged having people that care about what they’re doing and it’s a passion project enough that it turns out very well.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”If you go” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
What: Brownstown Central High School choral department’s production of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”
When: 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday and noon and 5 p.m. Saturday (doors open an hour before each show)
Where: Auditorium at Brownstown Central High School, 500 N. Elm St., Brownstown
Tickets: $10 (available to purchase at the auditorium box office from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and one hour before each performance); livestreaming will be available for a fee online at hs.btownccs.k12.in.us
Directors: Stephanie Brock and Alisha Griffin
Cast: Micah Ballard, Jenna Bracamonte, Hunter Curry, Gabe Edwards, Grant Elliott, Logan Geswein, Maddie Gibson, Colton Hallow, Brandon Hamm, Lela Hendley, Kaitlyn McCormick, Addisyn Osborne, Reece Osborne, Sam Pace, Kaitlynn Robinson, Josh Rogers, Evan Rohlfing, Lanee Sarver, Addie Shelton, Griffin Stidam, Rehgen Stuckwisch, Andrew Wheeles, Ethan Wheeles, Stephen Wheeles and Landon Whitson
Chorus: Lily Abdulbari, Micah Ballard, Emily Barnes, Dylan Bridges, Lydia Chandler, Hunter Curry, Emma DeShong, Logan Geswein, Colton Hallow, Brandon Hamm, Addisyn Osborne, Reece Osborne, Leah Pottschmidt, Jenna Ratliff, Kaitlynn Robinson, Evan Rohlfing, Lacey Sweany, Shayla Sweany, Ethan Wheeles and Stephen Wheeles
Stage crew: Kayla Guthrie, Sophie McKinney, Sloan Stuckwisch, Lexi Wheeles and Evan Williams
Costumes: Crystal Stuckwisch and the Peace through Pieces quilting group
Lights and sound: Marcia Anderson
Set: Blake Hackman and his students
[sc:pullout-text-end]