Every spring, St Thomas produces their school musical that is performed by students in grades 5-8. This year, the production was Guys & Dolls Jr. Guys & Dolls is set in a time period in which gambling was not allowed. However, some characters gamble anyway, and the play is mainly about their gambling and how it affects those around them. The production was on March 20th and 21st at Marian University Theatre. It took many cast and crew members to put on this production, including Mrs. Greggo, who helped with stage crew and props, Julia Dugan, who was a student director, and Sadie Sheetz, who played one of the leads.
Mrs. Greggo is new to helping with the play. “I have a lot to learn since I am new to everything this year. But I knew that I would be surrounded with much support from all the actor, stage crew, parents, and staff involved from previous years,” she said. Mrs. Greggo has had previous experience with high school productions, but this was her first middle school production and her first production of Guys & Dolls.
Some of the lead roles were played by Sully Meyer, Maggie Gonzalez, Miles Barth, Sadie Sheetz, and Mateo Giordanelli. However, they could not put on the whole show without help from the student directors. Julia Dugan, one of the three student directors, had many roles. She stated, “Practices were great. Everything was right on time, and I think this year’s musical was amazing.” Julia was also student director last year, and that helped her this year because she had more experience. She thought the play went very well and thought it was a success. Many parents and students also enjoyed watching the performance.
Sadie had never played a lead role in the school production before, but has played the lead role outside of school. In Guys & Dolls, Sadie played Sarah Brown, one of the main characters. Sarah was a missionary who fell in love with Sky Masterson, a gambler. She enjoyed acting in this production, and said that memorizing lines was not a problem for her. “I like acting a lot and doing dialogue,” Sadie exclaimed.
Guys & Dolls was a huge success and the cast and crew worked very hard to produce the musical. They had fun, and many of them hope to do the school musical again next year.
