This week’s staff spotlight is on Legally Blonde‘s choreographer, Dani Shelton. I was lucky enough to get a chance to talk to Dani to ask her about her experiences with Gibson Southern Theatre and Legally Blonde the Musical. Dani has been involved in Gibson Southern Theatre for eight years now. She has been a part … Read more
This week’s staff spotlight is on Legally Blonde co-director Sam Steinmetz.
I recently got to sit down with Sam and get some insight on how long he’s been here at the GSTD and everything he’s “gotten his hands on”. Our interview is as follows:
Sam, How long have you been a part of the GSHS Theater department?
Well, I have been a part of the GSTD for seven years total. Four years was spent while I was attending Gibson Southern High School and the past three years as an assistant of varying degrees.
How many shows have you worked on and what kind of positions did you fill?
Special Thanks to 14WFIE, Emily Mieure from Sunrise, and Mike Blake from Midday With Mike for the coverage. Please let them know you appreciate their support of Gibson Southern Theatre.
Madison Dillon, as Elle Woods, sings “So Much Better.”
The entire cast and crew of Legally Blonde the Musical arrived at the Gibson Southern early this morning, checking in at four-thirty to warm up for their feature on 14 WFIE News Sunrise. The cast began by doing a vocal warm-up and then a physical warm-up to prepare for the performance. The crew, who was so dedicated as to come in at the same time as the cast, but not be seen on camera, helped by controlling the curtains, lights, sound, props, and set pieces. Despite the early hour of the show, the students all had a lot of energy and were ready to show the Tri-State what they have been working on for the past two and a half months.
Three major numbers from the musical Legally Blonde were included in the clips shown on the news. One of the songs was So Much Better, in which Elle Woods, portrayed by Madison Dillon, junior, found that she had been awarded an internship along with six other Harvard students. Another was What You Want: Part 2, where Elle is encouraged by Margot, Serena, Pilar, and Kate, portrayed by Mariah Paiz, junior, Madeline Cox, freshman, Lauren Fuhs and Natalie Bengert, juniors, as well as many other cast members on her goal to be accepted to Harvard Law School. The other number that was performed was
Two weeks from today will be a big day for the Gibson Southern Theatre Department. At 7 P.M. on the evening of March 8, GSTD’s production of Legally Blonde the Musical will be opening. The cast and crew of the show has been working extremely hard for the past three months, but this past … Read more
Mr. John Spradley, a GSHS teacher, has decided to volunteer his time with our department this year by conducting the orchestra for our upcoming production of Legally Blonde:The Musical. Spradley is not, however, new to the department. He began working with the GSTD in the 1980-1981 school year, while it was still under the jurisdiction … Read more
The spring musical, Legally Blonde, will be performed in early March, but many preparations, on top of rehearsals, have been taking place in the past two weeks. Two work days, both held the last two Saturdays, have had great attendance with many parents of cast members, as well as cast members themselves, working extremely hard to build sets. The tasks to be accomplished have made much progress during both of these work days. Students in the theatre arts and technical theatre classes have also been working hard on sets.
On the first work day, on Saturday, February 4th, quite a few parents, many being fathers, built multiple items including the Delta Nu house, the beauty salon where Paulette works, and the dorm room in which Elle lives while at Harvard. Multiple set pieces were built as well, some of which have double uses. The second work day, held today, Saturday, February 11th, allowed for a full five hours of priming and painting all the set and set pieces. A lot was accomplished in a short amount of time, although there is still one more work day to come on Saturday, February 25th. Hopefully at that time, the entire set will be completed and ready for the show.
Now that the Young Playwrights Project is officially over, our focus is now solely on our Spring production: Legally Blonde. This week in particular, we focus on an important company number, “What You Want”. In this number, Elle Woods tries to convince a few important executives to admit her to the famous Harvard Law School. The … Read more
Fame is a 1980’s musical about a group of students that attend New York City’s High School for the Performing Arts in hopes of making it big and achieving the ultimate goal- fame. Milheiser starred in the show as Carmen Diaz, the sassy and diva-licious Hollywood-hopeful. She and the rest of the mostly teenage cast entertained and … Read more
On Saturday, December 10th, Gibson Southern Theatre Department’s I.T.S. Troupe # 5623 performed its’ cutting of Dracula by John Mattera at I.T.S. Regional competition held at Brown County High School. At regional competition, the piece performed by each troupe including the time used to set-up and strike, or take down, the set must encompass less than 45 minutes. Fourteen very talented students were included in the cast, and the production team included Matt Hart, the Director and Thespian Sponsor, and nine students. The preparation for this performance began months ago, when Matt Hart chose this play to be performed and decided to use a full black and white color treatment with just a pop of color in the play. Cast members began rehearsing in November, and crews worked hard all last week to prepare themselves for the competition.
