GHS Drama to stage High School Musical Jr. in May

This year, the GHS drama club will be performing High School Musical Jr. The production has drastically changed due to COVID-19 restrictions. People will not be attending the performance, but instead will be purchasing tickets for a recording of the show, similar to what happened for the fall play. 

Actors have been working with Mr. Fleury and Mr. Mandeville for the vocals, recording their singing at home, and then submitting it online. Because of masks, singing in person becomes muffled and hard to hear, so this route will result in the best audio quality possible for the songs.

Another change that has been brought around by COVID-19 is where the play will be filmed. Because High School Musical Jr. is set in a high school, the actors will be able to utilize the classrooms, outside, and gym that is already here. Some scenes will also be shot in the auditorium because some of the play takes place in the school auditorium. 

The singing is recorded online, but the audio for the spoken scenes are in person. “I’ll be setting up whatever lighting we have, and I also manage sound for dialogue scenes,” said director of photography, sound designer, and editor Treely Dowd. “Additionally, I will probably be doing a significant portion of post-production editing. It’s definitely a lot for one person, but I find ways to make compromises in some places so it will hopefully all work out well by the end.”

The options for the tech crew this year are far more limited than they were in the past, but Dowd has taken on a lot of responsibilities and are working extremely hard to deliver a clean production of High School Musical Jr.

The play this year will certainly be different, but everybody is putting in a lot of effort to make it work. There are many more factors, such as cameras, COVID restrictions, and audio, that have to be dealt with this year, so many changes have had to be made. The entire drama program is meeting every day of the week for rehearsal and is set to deliver an amazing show May 20th – 22nd. Tickets will be available for purchase closer to the dates of the show. Stay tuned for more updates.