{"id":5401,"date":"2011-03-28T03:15:38","date_gmt":"2011-03-28T08:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=5401"},"modified":"2011-03-29T02:06:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T07:06:00","slug":"real-rain-just-one-highlight-of-vwhs-latest-musical-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/03\/28\/real-rain-just-one-highlight-of-vwhs-latest-musical-production\/","title":{"rendered":"Real rain highlights VWHS’ latest musical"},"content":{"rendered":"

CINDY WOOD\/<\/strong>independent feature writer<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
VWHS students Nate Simson (left) and Daniel Bashore finish up a dance routine for the school production of "Singin' in the Rain." (Cindy Wood\/Van Wert independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Think Gene Kelly. Van Wert High School’s Daniel Bashore certainly is these days.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, Bashore has never taken a dance lesson in his life, but he’ll be tapping his way across the Niswonger Performing Arts Center stage when the curtain opens for VWHS’s upcoming musical, Singing in the Rain<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“I’ve definitely never danced before in any aspect,” Bashore said, adding that he’s been taken out of his comfort zone preparing for the role of Don Lockwood, a role made famous by dancing legend Kelly. “But I thought this was a way to expand my acting capabilities. Something just seemed right about this.”<\/p>\n

Ironically, female lead Danielle Slagle’s character doesn’t seem quite right to her. Slagle plays Lina Lamont, an air-headed, snotty, celebrity type. “She just has this very cocky attitude about herself, and has a big ego, and I’m really nothing like that,” Slagle said, adding with a laugh, “She also has this horrible nasal speaking voice and she can’t sing at all. I just want to let everyone know that she’s supposed to sound terrible. I really don’t sound like that.”<\/p>\n

VWHS Drama Director Michelle Stoller said cast and crew are pulling out all the stops for this production, and it’s sure to be one that audience members will remember. “This seemed to be a good fit for the dynamics we have in the department right now,” Stoller said, adding that choosing which play to produce is an arduous, time-consuming task. “It’s a really long process of reading multiple shows, but typically I look at the size of the show, the voice range and those types of things,” Stoller said. “Usually I just wait for one to jump out at me and every year so far, it has.”<\/p>\n

Singing in the Rain<\/em> will be held at 7 p.m. April 14-16 at the NPAC. The performances will be the culmination of months of learning and preparing lines, vocal performances and dance routines. Oh, and there is the rain machine.<\/p>\n

“We have definitely pulled out all the stops for this one,” Stoller said, adding that Josh Schumm has been instrumental in the design and engineering of the rain machine.<\/p>\n

Hugh Saunier, technical director at the NPAC, said the rain machine will definitely impress those in attendance. “What will be fun is not only the fact that it rains, but it’s so large and will appear out of nowhere, that people will really wonder how we fit it on the stage,” he said.<\/p>\n

Months of preparation have gone into the production, and cast and crew are busy working on last-minute details and counting down the days until opening night. Joining Slagle and Bashore in the lead roles are Alex Burchfield, who plays Kathy Selden, and Nate Simson, who portrays Cosmo Brown.<\/p>\n

In total, there are 28 cast members and approximately 15 crewmembers that are all involved in the production. That number is actually lower than normal, Stoller said.<\/p>\n

“That was intentional and we have a smaller cast on purpose for a production like this,” she said. “This type of play takes such a huge amount of dedication and consistency from the entire cast.”<\/p>\n

Becoming involved in the drama department in any manner is a commitment for any student, but throw in sports, homework or other extra-curricular activities, and it becomes difficult for students to devote the time and effort to multiple activities. “I guess it’s really a give and take,” Stoller said. “Students really put in a lot of hard work and a lot of time, but they are developing people skills and confidence that they’ll take with them after high school.”<\/p>\n

For now, the cast is practicing three hours a day, three times a week, in a facility that Stoller said is a tremendous blessing for the drama department. “The PAC center enables us to really bring our shows up a notch as far as quality goes,” Stoller said. “The kids are very talented and work hard, but when they have a facility like this, they rise to even higher levels. They kind of grow to fit the aura of the building.”<\/p>\n

Saunier agreed, adding that the NPAC gives students exposure to national acts and performances. “A lot of our students are getting exposed to things they wouldn’t normally be exposed to,” Saunier said. “And many times, the students get to help crew those shows so they can get that experience and actually talk to the performers and see what it’s like.”<\/p>\n

The production has created quite a buzz at the high school and in the community as well. Stoller is hoping that leads to a great turnout for the show’s run. “We have a great crew of men from the community working on the rain machine, and the kids are learning to tap dance, and they’re doing wonderfully ,considering they weren’t dancers coming into this,” she said. “But the kids are extremely excited about this show and have such high energy coming into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a fun show because it’s light-hearted and people are familiar with the show and the main theme songs,” she added.<\/p>\n

Handling the lights for the show will be Saunier’s son, Matt, and Stoller said his expertise and experience working the lights will be a definite bonus during the show. “Sometimes we take for granted all the little nuances that go on during performances here, and Matt has been wonderful and does a really good job,” she said.<\/p>\n

Producing the musical has also allowed other students at the school to become involved in certain aspects of the show, Stoller said. “The show takes place in the time in American history when the country was moving from silent films to talking films, so we’ve had to prerecord some black and white silent films,” Stoller said. “That’s enabled us to include our television production department as well.”<\/p>\n

Everyone involved is anxiously awaiting curtain call, Stoller said, and cast member A.J. Thomas might have summed it up best. “It’s going to rain on stage,\u201d he said with something like awe. \u201cThat’s so cool. That’s just ridiculously cool.”<\/p>\n

Tickets for the play go on sale this Friday, April 1, at the box office and are also available at the door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CINDY WOOD\/independent feature writer Think Gene Kelly. Van Wert High School’s Daniel Bashore certainly is these days. Admittedly, Bashore has never taken a dance lesson in his life, but he’ll be tapping his way across the Niswonger Performing Arts Center stage when the curtain opens for VWHS’s upcoming musical, Singing in the Rain. “I’ve definitely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 05:19:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}