Eaton high school’s “Producing Eaton” presented Footloose the Musical over the weekend of April 19-22, surprisingly topping the previous performance of Tom Sawyer last November. Footloose did not feature most of the regular actors from the Theater Production class. Instead, theater instructor Kendra Campbell held a school-wide tryout.
Footloose is a popular musical that was originally introduced in 1984, and is the story of a high school senior who moves from Chicago to the small, secluded town of Bomont, Tennessee to live with his uncle after his father abandoned him and his mother. The town has a law against dancing because of a car accident that took the lives of four Bomont teens as they were returning from a dance. Ren, played by Estin McGraw (14) and his friends Willard, played by Trevor Foos (14), and Ariel, played by Brianna Devore (12), try to get the city council, led by Ariel’s father and town minister, Reverend Moore, played by Tucker Goodwine (15), to change the law.
Though the acting lacked some of the superb acting skills from some of the past productions, the musical was impressive, and, despite missing the acting of McKyler Korth (13) or Stan Devore (11), the play did not seem to lack in the acting category. McGraw, having doubts, said, “Ms. Campbell really worked with the people, like myself, who lacked acting experience, and really prepared us well.” Foos (14), who had never acted before, played the role of a southern cowboy tremendously, and Devore showed that acting skills run in the family. Stan Devore played the lead in Servant of Two Masters.
McGraw really seemed to work well with Devore. The two had great chemistry and seemed to feed off of each other’s energy well. The scene at the train tracks really gave a good overview of the two’s chemistry, and the stage kiss was quite convincing.
Overall, the performance was very good and was better than anticipated. The music, led by teachers Phong Nguyen and Christina Contreras, was very impressive. Justin Gebauer (14) did not miss a beat all night on the drumbs, and Nattalie Dyer (15), and Mishayla Stephenson (14) played percussion just as impressively.The three advisors of the play did a great job of putting together a performance that demands so much such as a musical.