Gretna High School will present “Seussical” for this year’s spring musical, with performances on April 30 through May 3. The show is being directed by English teacher Caitie Hays, with this musical marking the second that she has head directed.
“Seussical” follows the story of Horton the Elephant, played by junior Peyton Hammond, who finds a speck of dust containing the tiny world of Whoville. Because the people of the Jungle of Nool refuse to believe him, he is eventually put on trial for being crazy, and all the people of Whoville come together to make enough noise to be heard. While Horton is fighting to prove that the Whos are real, another character, Gertrude McFuzz, played by senior Rebecca Roberts, is facing her own problems.
“She’s a bird that lives in the jungle of Nool, and she’s very ashamed of her small one-feather tail,” Roberts said. “So throughout the story, she tries to get Horton the Elephant to notice her by taking pills to make her tail grow.”
With a stark contrast to Gertrude, you have the Wickersham Brothers, played by sophomores Boston Nielson, Drake Holland, Ryan Sims and Brayden Stamm; junior Micah Allen; and senior Shane Huskey.
“The Wickersham brothers are antagonistic monkeys that try to make a fool of Horton,” Nielson said.
They are constantly making fun of Horton and even steal the speck of dust from him.
“I hope people appreciate the message that while some people may be different, they are still valuable and deserve the same love and respect as everyone else,” said Hays said.
In a similar way, the Gertrude story intends to teach the audience that you don’t need to change yourself to fit in or be noticed. After realizing that she didn’t need to have a big tail to be noticed by Horton, she “grows confident in who she is,” Roberts said.
This spring play marks the second production that Hays will have directed. While it is only her second time head directing, she has had years of experience in assisting professional theatre and holds a bachelor’s degree in Musical Theatre.
“Other challenges are just the massive amounts of work that go into putting together a full musical,” Hays wrote in an email interview. “A director is only as good as their team, and we have an incredible team this year!”
To pull the show together before April 30, the team has to be constantly at work making parts for the set, buying props and costumes and making sure everything works together.
With limited time, many rehearsals need to be completed within a short timeframe.
“At the beginning, I try to build team-building/ensemble-building activities into rehearsal. Like any sport, we are only as good as every member of our show,” Hays wrote. “I love theatre games, but sometimes it’s just allowing time to chat or take a break while working hard.”
Finding a balance between working hard and taking breaks builds fun into rehearsals and helps prevent burnout from the large workload.
“Seussical” is also the same show that many seniors did back in eighth grade at Gretna Middle School.
“When I first discovered that the show was ‘Seussical,’ I thought it was funny, seeing as we had done it in eighth grade,” Roberts said.
Similar to the students, Hays also has a background with “Seussical”.,
“I have performed many numbers over my life, and it was my senior musical when I was in high school,” Ms. Hays wrote. , “I have a background with ‘Seussical.’”
Hays also said she chose this show specifically because it had many features for the available talented performers, and it catered more towards families, moving away from the more grim tone of the “Addams Family”.
“The best metaphor is medicine heals your body, but theatre heals your soul,.” Hays said., “We promise to give a high-quality performance that will take you away from the struggles of the real world for a short amount of time and transport you to a bright, magical, and ultimately positive world.”
