Pioneer theater group gets unusual opportunity
Categories: Stage
Students at Pioneer High School are getting an unusual opportunity: the chance to help shape a new, professionally written stage musical.
Both Huron and Pioneer high schools in Ann Arbor, as well as others throughout our area, have reputations for doing surprisingly strong high-school theater. But what's happening with Pioneer's spring musical, "Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka," which was scheduled to open last night, is pretty interesting.
Pioneer's production is part of the development process for a new musical, one which is expected to soon become licensed to be available for school and community theater groups across the country. When that happens, the experiences of the Pioneer cast and crew will have contributed to the final, finished script and score.
The process really started in earnest about six years ago, with Tim McDonald, a successful theater writer who has made a career out of adapting movies into stage musicals and also rewriting existing shows into "junior" versions geared to middle schools. He recalled in a phone interview that there had always been a desire to develop a good stage show based on Roald Dahl's book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" using some of the songs - "The Candy Man," and so on - from the 1971 movie adaptation, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."
After meeting with the Dahl estate, McDonald and Leslie Bricusse, cowriter of the movie songs, developed a one-hour stage show that played at the Kennedy Center and toured for three years. That show led to the creation of a "Junior" version, which in turn generated demand from high schools for a full-length show.
With those two versions as a basis, McDonald and Bricusse expanded and altered the show, with a more adult orientation and some darker shadings. And, McDonald noted, the full-length show also allows for more character development.
The musical now features about 20 songs, and McDonald said of Bricusse's recent contributions, "This new stuff feels like it was always there."
With a full script together, "pilot" productions have gone up in California, Texas and North Carolina, McDonald said, and they led to additional revisions.
Enter Pioneer High School. Susan Hurwitz, the producer for the Pioneer Theatre Guild, said that when the group was approached about the chance to help "workshop" the show, the guild had to commit before there was even a script available. But they wanted to do it, and a tight timeline - not to mention special effects like a chocolate river - has been challenging.
"It's been a big adventure for us," she said.
McDonald has had contact with the Pioneer folks all along, and he believes the show is now very close to its final form. He plans to see another pilot production in Rochester, N.Y., on Friday, then see Pioneer's on Saturday. "I'm hoping that Pioneer will be the end of our pilots," he said. "I feel like I'm going to see a really smart production."
From there the script can be finalized - "there'll be tweaks" - and the show can proceed to the licensing stage, making it available to all.
McDonald singled out for praise Pioneer's director, Etai Ben Shlomo, a student in the University of Michigan's acclaimed musical-theater program, which has a close affiliation with Pioneer. And the author said he loves the idea of college students mentoring high schoolers: "We should have that in every single field, beyond the arts."
We'd like to hear your opinions on the musical, and so would others. Comment on this story by clicking on the link below.
For details on Pioneer theater, see http://ptguild2.aaps.k12.mi.us.
For information on Huron High School theater, currently presenting Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," see http://www.aaps.k12.mi.us/huron.huron_players/home or call 734-994-2095.
Or for details on these and other high school theater productions in the area, see Thursday's Spotlight section or our daily Happenings page. |
