After months of preparation and an ever grueling tech week, Drama Club proudly presented showings of “Annie” on March 3-5. The hardworking thespians wrapped up their showings with over 1,000 tickets sold. 

“Annie” is a classic musical about an orphan girl named “Annie” who lives in an orphanage run by mean Ms. Hannigan. Annie is selected to live in rich man Mr. Warbucks’ house in order to promote his image. She believes that her parents are still out there, so after bonding with Mr. Warbucks, he announces a search and reward for her parents. Many frauds were discovered in the search. Warbucks, however, wished to adopt the little orphan.

The club faced several challenges and changes this year. Former director Debra Williamson retired, so many faculty members stepped up to help. Ms. Debrah Evans filled the spot as director, while Mr. Cole Eged, Ms. Heather Giammaria, Ms. Jennifer Newan and Ms. Emily Rickard also helped to make the production possible. Eged served as the producer, Giammaria served as the assistant director, Newman also served as an assistant director and vocal director and Rickard served as the director of the orchestra. 

On Oct. 4, the advisors held the first Drama Club meeting. During the meeting, members discussed and voted for officers. Juniors Kyler Brown and Madison Sanders were voted co-presidents. Junior Leannah Messenger was vice president, junior Connor Tavern was treasurer and junior Brigette Richard was secretary. 

Auditions for the musical were held on Nov. 3 and 4. After everyone auditioned, advisors chose “Annie,” as they felt it would best fit the members. The cast supported many different leads. 

Messenger played “Annie,” Sanders played “Grace Farrell,” senior Norina Baker played “Ms. Hannigan,” Brown played “Daddy Warbucks,” junior Alexander Probst played “Rooster,” senior Madison Rhoades played “Molly” and junior Hailey Couch played “Lily St. Regis.” Therapy dog Rosie even played “Coco,” Annie’s pet dog. 

Following auditions, the cast only had three months to prepare for opening night. Members had to memorize lines and perfect their vocals in order to put forward their best work. The work didn’t stop there either. The stage crew also had to make sure the visuals and sets were perfect. Some students outside of the club even helped to paint the sets a week prior to the shows.

“It’s been a real challenge this year because we have different everything: from directors, choreographers, vocal coaches and stuff. Not only that, but we also have a lot of different people that have never done musicals before. So, it was a struggle at the beginning to find the rhythm of things. But in the past several weeks, we’ve really hit our stride and prepared a great show for everyone,” Brown said. 

A week prior to the play, the club held Tech Week. During Tech Week, the club did full run-throughs of the play to get everything ready. Practices wrapped up late into the night, so many of the members were very tired coming into the play. However, that didn’t stop them from performing their hearts out.

All three showings went well, as all three showings got standing ovations. The play started at 7 p.m. each night and had a brief intermission halfway through. 

“I just hope everyone enjoys it; it was a joy to work on,” Brown said.