From futuristic chocolate factories in Willy Wonka to the 1800’s countryside in Pride and Prejudice (which will be performed in January), the AHS Theater Department has experimented with a wide range of shows since director and theater teacher Logan Carter has taken over, and for this year’s spring musical, she will be taking the show in a completely different direction; to the booming and bustling ‘20’s.

The spring musical this year is Singing in the Rain, a show that takes place in the late 1920s, and has many fun songs and a lot of dancing; mostly tap.

“I chose this show based on the fact that we have a lot of graduating seniors this year who are really interested in musical theater, and yet don’t have a lot of dance training, and I thought hey, let’s give these kids a show that will train them to dance so that when they leave AHS and go into theater in the real world they will actually have some dance training to help them out,” Carter said.

Although Carter is not expecting everyone to come into the musical knowing how to tap, or even to have more than a basic knowledge of dance, she is hoping that people will consider taking a few classes at Dance Progressions prior to auditions, which are going to be held on December 10^th. For the bigger dance numbers, she is hoping to catch the interest of some AHS dancers.

“It is my hope that the entire dance team will do the show, because we will have a whole part of the show that will feature dancers doing some really flashy numbers, and have some really cool costumes, kind of like the Rockettes,” Carter said.

Singing in the Rain was not an easy choice for Carter, seeing as there were a few other shows in the running that she was seriously considering.

“We have some strong boys in our theater department, which in high school theater is very rare, so I was hoping to do a show that has lots of roles for guys. I looked at Damn Yankees, which is a musical about baseball that I thought would be fun. I also looked at Beauty and the Beast because I knew a lot of kids wanted to do Beauty and the Beast this year. Unfortunately, it’s a little bit overdone, especially in this community, and Theater Aspen did it two summers ago, and Defiance Theater Company did it just last fall, so it was too soon to do that. Another was How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, but that was also done very recently,” Carter said.

One of the magical aspects of Singing in the Rain will be the technical elements, which although contrast those of Willy Wonka are anticipated to be no less extravagant, and will hopefully add a wonderful edge to this production.

“We are hoping to incorporate video and projection stuff into the scenery, as well as some film sequences, and we will be letting the graphic design classes [at AHS] be doing some really cool design stuff,” ASD technical theater director, Jon Geller said. “As for the rain, all I can say is that it is going to be pretty fantastic and we are going to be doing some things that you will have hopefully never seen before.”

So far around the school, Singing in the Rain has been a very popular choice, and many students who are planning on participating in the spring musical are very excited to put on this wonderful production.

“I think Singing in the Rain was a great choice. It’s a really fun and energetic show” Emery Major said. “I’m a senior, and this will be my last musical at AHS, and I couldn’t be more excited about it,” Emery Major said.

“I’m super excited. Singing in the Rain is one of my favorite shows, and I’m excited to tap,” senior Cole Schwab said.

With the directors visions and the students excitement, Singing in the Rain is shaping up to be fabulous, so get pumped AHS: it looks like we are in for an amazing show.