North’s Green Room Theatre presented this year’s spring musical “Punk Rock Girl!” on the seventh, eighth, and ninth of March.
The musical “Punk Rock Girl!” is a coming-of-age story that follows the life of 16-year-old, Angelea Quivers, and her navigation through high school. Her world becomes flipped when she starts becoming friends with Proxy, a teenager who is all about the grunge and band lifestyle. The musical is full of emotion, twists, and turns. The musical presents songs from artists like Blondie, Pat Benatar, Avril Lavigne, Joan Jett, P!nk, and Gwen Stefani.
“We are the first high school in the country to put Punk Rock Girl on so it’s always a risk doing a show that no one knows,” said director Cher Schwartz. “That being said, it’s an energetic and fun story with popular music that generally people know. So during the performances, audiences were laughing and bopping along to the music.”
Since the musical was being presented at a high school for the first time ever, the pressure was on. A musical needs a larger production team that consists of different directors who take care of details like choreography, music, and sound. These roles mean a lot to a musical in order to make it all come together.
“It is a lot of adults to gather and organize and there tends to be a larger cast size and crew size,” said Schwartz. “So there are always challenges putting all the pieces together and getting a bigger set built, but part of the fun is problem-solving and getting creative and working together to get through the difficulties.”
Though preparations were challenging, the finishing of “Punk Rock Girl!” was a success. The cast and crew put their all into the musical from start to finish. The backstage before and during a show is always busy with the cast and crew preparing sound, music, makeup, costumes, hair, and props. Even if there was a minor hiccup, they supported each other and problem-solved.
“It’s just you have so much adrenaline and you’re so energetic,” said senior Brody Mooremeier. “You want to show your best, especially for the closing show. It’s a sad thing for it to be ending but I feel like you want to try to give it your all especially your closing night and in this musical, it was so much fun. I definitely took time to know my character and perform my character.”
Like all productions, they must have an ending. This musical was definitely a hard ending with it being the senior’s last production before their school year ends.
“I will say it was very emotional, just like thinking about not being here next year. It’s kind of sad,” said Mooremeier.
“The seniors acting onstage showed the growth and strengths they’ve developed over the last 4 years. Their presence at rehearsal set the tone for hard work while also having fun and laughing through it all. They showed our underclassmen how to take risks and not be afraid of judgment or mistakes,” said Schwartz. “Offstage, their leadership in our tech program was just as impactful. Many of them were crew heads and mentoring younger students how to build a set, plot out hair and make-up or costumes for a show, hang lights or light design a portion of the show, and what it takes to be a sound engineer for a musical. I hope the seniors are able to look back on this and see the impressive legacy they have left behind.”
