BY NICOLE SCHMIDT
"Thoroughly Modern Millie,"
this year’s musical production, was performed April 19-22 here at
Roosevelt by the RHS thespians. Approximately $6300 dollars were
made, and 902 tickets were sold.
In an interesting twist to
this year’s musical, "Thoroughly Modern Millie" had a double cast.
Almost every lead role was played by two different people, letting
the production star more students and have two different attitudes
to the play.
Director Angela Kane decided
to cast this way because in most lead roles, two people auditioned
perfectly for the same role, each bringing something different to
the part. The rest of the cast felt this was good, but also more
difficult to make successful.
"It gave a lot of people the
opportunity to be lead, but it was confusing because we had to run
everything twice," said senior Lindsay Kean. "We changed how scenes
were done and changed delivery too."
Junior Shaylyn Kiely was just
one of the actresses that was double casted. She shared the part of
Millie Dillmount with senior Lauren Calvin.
"It was hard at first, but I
eventually got used to it and we learned to work together," said
Kiely. "[The cast] was great, they are really talented people."
Kane was satisfied with the
results, and said so in they play’s program.
"This show fell into place
beautifully….With tons of our time, commitment, energy, patience,
and practice, we all made it," said Kane. "Although [the different
casts] share a title and other cast members, they have grown into
two separate experiences."
Although they were two
different productions, the main story line was the same.
The play is about a small town
Kansas girl, Millie Dillmount, who moves to New York City to make it
big as an actress on her own with a plan to marry her boss.
In the first scene, she is
mugged by a bum who takes her hat, purse, and one shoe. To get help,
Millie trips a man walking by who eventually introduces himself as
Jimmy Smith, played by Jack Hundly and Brandon LePage. Knowing she
is on her own in the big city, Jimmy helps Millie by giving her the
number to Hotel Priscilla for Women.
Once at Hotel Priscilla,
Millie finds herself surrounded by wannabe actresses, most who have
little family or money. The orphans who as Mrs. Meers would say are
"So sad to be alone in the world," are quickly gone when the hotel
manager, Mrs. Meers, played by Lindsay Kean, sells them into white
slavery.
However, Mrs. Meers can not do
everything on her own. She holds Chinese brothers Ching Ho (Jake
Moscynski) and Bun Foo (Steve Depta) hostage, their work in exchange
for their mother, played by Annie Salazar.
Miss Dorothy, played by Olivia
Zang and Shannon Pickens, is introduced looking for a room and is
about to go in on one with Millie when a vacancy occurs. Millie and
Miss Dorothy try to see "How the Other Half Lives," and become
instant good friends.
Needing a job to pay for rent,
Millie finds work at he Sincere Trust Insurance Company where she
types for her single boss Trevor Graydon, played by Tommy Hierlihy
and Adam Alsanayan.
The remainder of the play
shows how Millie is able to adapt to her new life, new friends and
possibly, her new love. However, things did not exactly work out for
her and Mr. Graydon. Jimmy and Millie are the ones who hit it off,
although Millie is unsure of this because Jimmy is not rich, and
does not fit into her plan.
In the last scene, Jimmy
proposes to Millie. Millie accepts, then it is time for her to learn
the truth. Jimmy was not poor. He is actually the son of a famous
actress, and the owner of Mr. Graydon’s insurance company.
In the end, Millie had finally
figured out what mattered in life, and was not going back to Kansas
for the life of her.
