Take a Chance on Me Mamma Mia Here We Go Again

Mamma Mia!, here we get again

Jump 2020

by Ashley Lodato, Education Managing director for Methow Arts

Although none of the members of the Liberty Bong Drama Company (LBDC) in the Methow Valley School District were alive during the heyday of the Swedish pop music supergroup ABBA, they're as familiar with the band'south songs as any 1970s disco fan on the club circuit—and perhaps even more than and then. Interim in the LBDC's May 2020 production of Mamma Mia!, so, is in some means a flake of a homecoming. Still, as with whatever LBDC product, this Mamma Mia! venture is uncharted terrain.

Unlike most of the remainder of the full general population, Liberty Bell Drama Visitor teacher and director Kelly Grayum was not smitten with the musical Mamma Mia! at first glance. "My initial uninformed view of Mamma Mia! was that it was vacuous fluff," he says. "Just it turns out to be very well written, the music is challenging, and it offers some wonderful moments for our immature actors to plumb the depths of their characters' emotions."

Besides, notes Grayum, Mamma Mia! is the kickoff LBDC play written by a adult female, which Grayum believes is of import, especially since the musical's theme centers effectually the thought that a woman doesn't need a man to complete her; that she has within her everything she needs to be her best self.

"I like that theme," says Grayum, who works with co-manager Danbert Nobacon, Merc Playhouse Executive Director Missi Smith, and Methow Arts vocal teaching artist Dana Stromberger to brand script selections. "We consider student involvement offset," says Grayum. "Nosotros desire a show that will generate full general buy-in."

Mamma Mia! was a pop choice with many students, Grayum says, and it likewise features multiple roles for females, which mirrors the LBDC's form enrollment. Finally, says Grayum, "We desire to select a show that has a rich theme and topic to explore and is well-written with adept music."

Ah yeah, thank you for the music. The bear witness's score is, as Grayum says, "undeniable and fun." It'southward a rare person who can hear an ABBA song without at to the lowest degree tapping her foot to the beat out. With enduring favorites similar "Dancing Queen" and "Voulez Vous," Mamma Mia! has the potential to plough into one giant singalong. "If the audience isn't singing along by the stop," says Grayum, "we did something very wrong. Or everyone in the audience died during the performance."

With such a lively and familiar show, Grayum says, one of the challenges is reminding students that they are non recreating the movie that so many of them take seen (and which some of them can recite line for line along with Hollywood stars Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan). "The musical is different in many actually of import means," says Grayum. "They tin can create their own version of these characters."

The audience, likewise, Grayum says, should "drop their assumptions about this prove based on the flick and come with every bit blank a slate as they tin can." This version of Mamma Mia! is uniquely an LBDC production, and if you've seen whatever of the visitor'southward other productions, you know that you are leap to be surprised.

1 thing you won't exist surprised by is the talent of actors, singers, dancers, choreographers, stage directors, costume designers involved in Mamma Mia! "I am in awe of our kids," Grayum says. But it'southward not just the students' theatrical flair that impresses Grayum and Nobacon; it's their poise and maturity regarding the play's casting. "In that location are just so many lead and supporting roles and with all of the talent that signed up for the class, thwarting was inevitable," says Grayum, adding, "But again, we are and then impressed past our kids, how they rallied from thwarting in the casting and have worked so hard on the show already."

All this energy put forth by the LBDC members has translated into a community "buzz surrounding the bear witness," says Grayum, noting that last twelvemonth's performance of Chicago sold out for every show; he expects Mamma Mia! to do the same.

What happens onstage during live shows is sometimes the just thing audiences are aware of, simply of grade there are hundreds of person-hours poured into every production for months leading upwardly to opening night. Students rehearse in class for about three hours each week, and they'll spend actress hours at the Merc in the evenings in the weeks leading up to the bear witness. Vocal coach Dana Stromberger has already begun working on some of ABBA'due south signature fast and complicated harmonies with students. "In that location are iii- and 4-part harmonies all over the place," Grayum says. "In years past, we would merely exercise away with harmonies, but with Dana now and such difficult-working kids, everything is possible." Additionally, Grayum says, "we have choreographers now and so each number is going to exist amazing.  Missi Smith at The Merc and junior Annika Libby are combining to design and teach the choreography. We are so lucky."

The set, too, says Grayum, will wow audiences. In years past, some LBDC members have not wanted to be onstage and accept thus worked with Nobacon on the fix, just this twelvemonth all 28 students accept roles in Mamma Mia! This ways that Nobacon will single-handedly taken on the set design and much of its construction. In addition to beingness an role player, singer, and songwriter (read more than here), Nobacon "is an amazing 3-D visual artist," says Grayum. "The set will exist astonishing. And I suspect we volition all choice up a hammer and paintbrush eventually."

As they do with other LBDC productions, students will select and create costumes and props for the show, sourcing from the Merc's supplies, the community, and their ain homes. "We practise need props!" says Grayum. "For example, anyone have a bagpipe we could borrow?  How about six wetsuits, snorkel masks, and flippers?  A very small rowboat?"

Snorkels? Bagpipes? "Have a Adventure on Me?" "Knowing Me, Knowing Yous?" What'south not to like? Mamma Mia!, hither we become again. And nosotros but tin can't look.

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Date: May 13-17, 2020. Time: Midweek-Sabbatum @7pm. Sun @2pm. Doors open up 30 minutes prior to showtime. LOCATION: Merc Playhouse, Twisp. TICKETS: $12/developed, $5 students. Accelerate tickets available here. INFO: More info here.

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Source: http://www.methowarts.org/mamma-mia-here-we-go-again/

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