The Chanticleer

Issue date: 2/16/06 Section: News

Media Credit: Jessica Summe Male castmembers use the girls as instruments in Slap that Bass, a musical number in Crazy for You.

Many people have no idea what goes into a regular play--the long days and frantic nights of memorization, blocking, character development, costuming, props, set building and decoration, lighting, sound, publicity, and a zillion other elements have to come together flawlessly to even get a show on the stage.

Make that play a musical, and you increase the difficulty factor by ten.

"We have good working relationships with the art and music [departments] here," said Dr. Wayne "Doc" Claeren, the director of Crazy for You. "We're lucky-that's usually not the case. A lot of schools usually have trouble between departments."

The music department and the drama department have been working on Crazy for You since November, when Jeremy Storall, Teresa Stricklin, and Claeren all sat down and watched students audition for two days before Thanksgiving break.

"Occasionally we'll get someone with a lot of training, but that's rare," Claeren said. "Auditions are open to anybody. It's one of the major reasons we have shows, to give students that experience."

Stricklin, who teaches voice, said they didn't finish casting until after midnight. She would have loved to have been able to rehearse them through Christmas, since the first eight days of rehearsal when the new semester started were basically an introductory voice class.

"I'm one of the three or four who don't have to tap, which is lucky for them, but I do a lot of tabletop maneuvering," said Jessica Smith, who plays Irene. Smith auditioned just to be in the chorus, but overshot and landed the part of Irene.

Laura Danette, a choreographer from New York, returned again to JSU to work on Crazy for You. The students had to learn tap, soft-shoe, and several other kinds of dancing. Since JSU doesn't have a dance department to draw from, they went straight to Broadway.

Danette based the choreography on the original Broadway show.

"Laura's patience is amazing," says Josh Sirten, who plays Bobby. "When I knew they were getting her back, I felt much better about the dancing. The dancing was the biggest stretch for everybody."

But a musical isn't a musical without music, supplied by volunteers from the JSU music department.

"A lot of the students here are music majors, here for leadership or scholarship hours," said Jeremy Storall, the conductor. This is his second year doing the musical. "They're very well trained and experienced. It's easy to put them together," he said.

Crazy for You runs from February 16-19, and 23-26. Sunday matinees are at 2 P.M., all other shows start at 7 P.M. Tickets for students and military are $8, JSU personnel and senior citizens are $10, and adult tickets are $12. The Box Office can be reached at 782-5648.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools