Trinity Prep brought this year’s first Winter musical, Spongebob, to the stage From November 3rd to November 6th. According to Director Donna Walker, this musical is almost predictive of COVID-19.
This musical is about an optimistic sea sponge who has to be in lockdown because a volcano is about to erupt and destroy Bikini Bottom. Everyone recognizes this theme and immediately thinks of COVID. However, the play was written in 2016, prior to COVID.
“The kids even have even talked about it and said, ‘Are you sure this wasn’t written about COVID?’”, Walker said.
To go along with this unique theme, Walker believes she has a strong cast of 32 members.
“I have Cece Miller, who’s been singing and doing theater since she was little. I also have Mason Sadler, who is one of the most professional kids I’ve probably ever worked with. And then, I have a lot of middle schoolers who this is their first time doing something like this,” Walker said.
Eighth grader Sydney Holt plays Squidward in the musical. Holt mentions how she enjoys having Walker as a director.
“She’s an amazing director,” Holt said. “She really makes sure that she gives us notes when we need them and she sees it as a way for us to improve, not to be hard on us.”
Holt also shares her experiences working alongside junior lead Cecilia Miller.
“She’s amazing as Spongebob,” Holt said. “I think it was perfect casting because I can’t picture anybody else as SpongeBob.”
Miller has been doing theater for years. She started off with community theater, and then started doing theater for Trinity in 6th grade.
“I have a lot of other interests that I would like to pursue and right now theater is more of a hobby for me,” Miller said.
Unlike Miller, theater is more than a hobby for some people, including Holt.
“I started acting when I was eight and it’s pretty much what I want to do with my life,” Holt said.
Miller also likes the inclusion of middle schoolers in the all school musicals.
“I have always liked doing the all-school musical because of this [inclusion],” Miller said.
The final product of the musical doesn’t come without determination and a few bumps in the road.
“I didn’t have a license until we were two weeks into school, and then another whole week to get the actual scripts,” Walker said.
There are only six boys out of 32 cast members. Even with the shortage of boys, Walker finds a way to make it work.
“I was looking at shows that didn’t have a lot of guys, because we currently don’t have a lot,” Walker said. “And SpongeBob caught my eye because I thought that would be easy to gender bend.”
Gender bending is dressing and behaving as the opposite gender. These weren’t the only issues the [cast] faced.
Due to the hurricane, Walker mentioned that they also missed a lot of rehearsal time.
“It may not sound like a lot to miss two rehearsals, but that’s like 5 hours worth of work. That’s kind of devastating,” Walker said.
Rehearsals usually consist of a lot of repetition in order to perfect their performance.
“The first three weeks are literally sitting in chairs until the kids are about to explode, just learning music, and then we move out onto stage and we start blocking,” Walker said.
After the musical comes together, the prophetic theme becomes clearer. In quarantine, it seemed as if all hope was lost.
“It’s like the theme of feeling like it’s the end of the world, but in the end, everything’s okay,” Holt said
