SHS students prep for "Wild" spring musical

Sounds of singing, dancing, shouting and laughing have been echoing through the Sidney High School auditorium for the past month as nearly 30 students prepare for this year's spring musical production set to debut in early April.

"We've been doing musicals for probably 15 or 16 years," Director David Mead said. "We do one every year."

This year's production is "The Wild, Wild, Wildest West" by Christopher Gieschen and Bill Francoeur. The show is a comedic melodrama about a cold-hearted banker who attempts to defraud a widow of her land, while the local sheriff has to deal with a gang of villains who are tired of always losing and decide to go on strike.

"It should be lots of fun," Mead said. "The kids are having a lot of fun with the characters."

Mead said that in the past, the school performed more mainstream shows such as "Fiddler on the Roof" and "My Fair Lady," but royalties and rising production costs made putting on such shows less financially viable.

"We ended up losing money on them," he said. "The budget just simply couldn't take doing those anymore."

Instead, Mead said goes through the Colorado-based Pioneer Drama, which house-writes a series of musicals and offers rehearsal and accompaniment compact discs.

"And it costs me about $800 to produce a musical with them, where with 'My Fair Lady,' it would cost $3,000 or $4,000," he said.

As far as audience attendance, Mead said he did not see any real change when the school made the switch to the less-mainstream productions.

In selecting this year's musical, Mead said he looked through a list of shows that he felt would be a good fit for the cast and narrowed it down to a short list of five or six.

"Then I had the seniors who were going to be in the show come in and read through the plots and listen to some of the music," he said. "They actually selected the show."

Freshman Clara Kokjer said while she performed in a musical last year, this will be her first school-involved production. She plays "April," one of a quartet of sisters featured in the show.

"My character is very annoying," Kokjer said. "I yodel off-pitch all the time, and these villains kidnap me but can't stand my yodeling."

Kokjer's yodeling will be on full display in the song, "I'm a Yodelin' Gal from Indiana," where she drives her kidnappers to surrender with her incessant caterwauling.

"Yodeling is very hard," she said. "I have to voice crack, which I have to force. I practice this song all of the time because I have to try and perfect it."

Kokjer said she has been having fun with the show, and plans to return and do it again in her sophomore year and beyond.

"It's really fun," she said.

Mead said with the school's musicals, the majority of the students stick with it throughout their time in high school.

"Most of them, when they do it as a freshman, they do it all the way through their senior year," Mead said.

The one exception this year is senior Logan Uhlir, who joined the show after seeing how much fun his younger sister, Lauren, had performing last year.

"My sister had lots of fun last year," Uhlir said. "This is also my first year in choir and the Sidney Singers, so it's all new to me."

Uhlir said he has enjoyed his time at rehearsal so far.

"It's been awesome," he said. "I didn't know what to expect, but everyone has been super nice. It's a really good group."

In the show, Uhlir plays the main villain, "Snidely Dastardly," who along with his girlfriend, "Belle Starr," unites the villains to go on strike.

An interesting quirk to his character is he is the only one in the show who does not speak in a southern accent.

"I went with more of a sophisticated American so he could sound like more of a leader," Uhlir said. "At first I had it as a southern accent, but with the big words he was using it didn't fit. So I decided to make the change."

Uhlir said he is looking forward to performing in front of an audience.

"We still have a long ways to go, though," he said.

At this point, the production is still in its early stages, with the students working three to four days a week after school learning their parts and blocking on stage.

"We started in the first part of February," Mead said. "With breaks, since we can't have during district basketball because everybody goes to that, but we've been doing this for just about a month."

Once the basketball playoff conclude, the cast will meet Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings for rehearsal up until dress rehearsal when they will practice their performance every weekday up until opening night.

The musical will be in the Sidney High School auditorium beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 8, and Saturday, April 9, with a Sunday matinee performance on April 10 at 2 p.m.

The Sunday matinee will also feature an "old west" themed lunch served by the cast starting at noon prior to the show. Lunch tickets can be purchased at the door.

Ticket prices for the show are $4 for students, $6 for seniors and $8 for adults, and can be purchased from cast member, through KSID radio or the Sidney High School main office.

For more information, follow the production on Twitter @SidneyMusical or online at Facebook.com/SHSspringmusical.