As musical season starts at Black River Falls high school, director Kevin Fosado-Haag begins his preparation for the high school’s upcoming musical in March, Frozen.
“When it comes to scheduling, and then when it comes to planning for the show, it takes a lot of time because I have to pick the show, I have to get it approved, and then I have to create all of the rehearsal schedules, all of the audition materials. And those are the things that take up the most time,” Fosado-Haag said.
From another perspective, band director Paula Neuzil, also begins prepping for the start of musical season as well.
“From a pit perspective, I usually start handing out the books as soon as we get them. So either late December, early January and then we do a couple of pit only rehearsals, usually starting in February and then the weekend of tag week,” Neuzil said. “We end up doing our first run through with the whole cast, and then we spend tag week kind of trying to balance everything out, and rehearse with the pit and the studio together.”
The musical season can bring a lot of fun memories for both of the directors but it can also put a lot of stress on them as the date nears for the show.
“The most stressful part of planning for the musical season is the beginning. Before making sure that we have all the schedules aligned to making sure that everything is set right,” Fosado-Haag said. “At the beginning of the year, we start, I start taking a look at who’s in front of me and who’s there and who I want to be in the musical, and who I think would do well.”
“A lot of the things that can make the musical more of a challenge if you’re prepared for, like, time constraints or if there’s snow that is affecting rehearsals or things like that. If you plan ahead to make sure you have it,” Neuzil said.
Even though the musical can cause a lot of stress on both of them, Fosado-Haag shares his excitement about showing Frozen in March.
“I’m excited because I think that the show is just going to be overall really fun. I loved doing Little Women last year,” Fosado-Haag said. “I thought it was very fun, but I think that this year there’s going to be so many more moments that are going to be filled with more laughter or enjoyment during those rehearsal processes.”
Neuzil shares her excitement about the interest Frozen could bring to not only the high school but the community.
“It’s a relatively new show for high school, so to be able to perform and, I know that a lot of, classic movies that people are familiar with or like the Disney movies that kids have grown up with, really generates a lot of interest in the community and amongst the elementary and middle school students, too,” Neuzil said.
Fosado-Haag hopes to bring fun memories for the students in the musical to look back on when the show is over.
“For me as a director, I want to bring an experience that’s filled with a lot of memories for students down the line, they’ll look back and remember what that was like, not just we did the show,” Fosado-Haag said.
