by Kat Mahoney ’20

Dancers

Consisting of 29 students from all different grades, the dancers come together to be a strong force that amplifies each song by adding a wave of emotions and fun. However, throughout every song as the girls spin around and the boys lift the girls into the air, it is often easy to forget all of the hard work and long hours spent learning each and every move.

Starting January 2 and going until the show, the group, led by the dance captains, seniors Catherine Little, Elan Rosenberg, Eli Bloom, and Jamie Connors, practices almost every weekday from 5 to 7. To learn so many dances, lifts, and jumps, the group often uses each practice to learn a whole number. Some days they spend time honing in on each precarious lift to make sure everyone remains safe. Each count and move is choreographed and tailored to each song and time decade by the captains as well as choreographers DJ Carswell, Dottie Yahr, Gianna Bartolini, Nicole Arroyo, and Samantha Kelly. They run songs over and over again and do lifts dozens of times to ensure a safe and flawless execution.

In addition to their two-hour dance practice, once the overall cast starts practicing each song together in the Ertzman Theater, or ‘all casts,’ the dancers practice with the rest of the different parts of the show for two hours and then will have two additional hours of dance practice after that. The group has spent so much time together, they create unbreakable bonds. After weeks of intense behind the scenes practice, the group performed as if they had been doing each move for their entire lives. The long hours behind the curtain paid off. 

“The dancers become one, big, crazy, family. It allows you to make lifelong friendships with people you might have never gotten a chance to talk to” said Connors.

Director

Behind every amazing show is a talented director, and behind this amazing show is four talented students. Head student directors senior Annabelle Kahn and senior Juliana Corn alongside assistant student directors junior Jenna Bloom and junior Tessa Block work behind the curtain before and during the shows to make sure everything goes exactly as planned. The girls work together to organize each practice and make sure they go smoothly. They create different google sheets and enter data about each song and singers. Their goal is to help the directors Alexander Silverbook, Johnathan Dunn, and Michael Maddox in any way possible. During the actual shows, the girls are placed on opposite sides of the stage to hand out mics, manage backstage, alert drummers when to begin each song, and open the curtains. They always have headsets on and communicate with members of the tech crew to ensure everything will start all at once. 

“The student directors are extremely vital to the success of the show. We would not be able to run auditions and rehearsals without them. They are the main point-people in charge backstage during the production” said Maddox.  

After applying for this job and being interviewed, each one of the students were chosen separately to be trained to reach the ultimate goal of head student director. Throughout this job, the four students get put in real-life situations where great management skills are crucial for success. They dedicate a major chunk of their lives to this show by staying after everyday and aiding for the directors and meeting with them whenever it is necessary. They build up relationships with each other to make sure that their communication is clear and strong to make everything run smoothly. 

“I have a lot more responsibility this year than I did previously. We have a lot more to do on our own than we did last year and we just had to figure out how logistically” said Corn.

As the head student director, Kahn and Corn have more responsibilities they have to fulfill on their own as well as helping assistant student directors learn. Both the head and assistant student directors get to do different hands-on projects leading up to the shows to make sure they are completely confident in each song. The four student directors alongside the three teacher directors lead the shows into having so many successful and virtually flawless years.

“We all work together as a collective team with the common goal to make sure Rock ‘n’ Roll is a hit” says Block. 

Tech

Every microphone handed out, spotlight shined, and sound heard is all thanks to the Rock ‘n’ Roll tech crew. The crew consisting of students from all different grades is split up into different jobs. The crew starts off by attending an interest meeting and filling out an application. After each person is chosen, there is a whole tech crew meeting in January to learn their roles, and from there, each part of tech gets a different starting practice based on their job. 

For every song, it is often hard to appreciate anything other than the singers, dancers, and band on stage; however, without the talented tech crew behind the stage, camera, and spotlight, it would be impossible for the show to occur. Starting from the very first practice, the tech crew gets hands-on experience for their job allowing them to learn their responsibilities quickly. They even can learn how to use a soundboard to incorporate and control the sounds from the instruments, singers, and background singers all together. Each practice helps the tech crew to learn their jobs alongside the other members of the show. They often practice at the same time as the singers, but sometimes they even stay later to make sure everything is running smoothly and clean up. As the time till each show diminishes, the crew focuses on touch-ups of each different aspect and action performed. The crew makes sure that each singer, dancer, and member of the band has everything they need to make their song perfect. 

“[We] make sure things backstage runs smoothly. I may help a dancer with a quick change, help with a cast member who doesn’t feel well, make sure microphones work, and more. Seeing everyone and everything finally come together is really cool” said stage manager and tech crew supervisor, Kristine Finan (’04).

The tech crew, just like the dancers and singers, create such a strong bond that allows them to work together flawlessly. They know how to swiftly and ideally prepare for each song by working alongside each other. “The cast and crew spend so much time together doing what we love that we truly become a huge family,” said senior Melissa Bitting who has been a spotlight operator for Rock ‘n’ Roll for three years.