SDHS Drama brings Brigadoon.

At the end of January and in the beginning of February, you were able to watch the second school drama play for this school year. The play was called Brigadoon and was about two American bachelors who went on a backpack trip to Scotland. In Scotland, they realized they were lost and that’s the reason why they found the little Village Brigadoon. Soon they found out that Brigadoon was a magical place that only came to life all hundred years, what is the reason why the two Americans couldn’t find it on their map.

The auditions for the play were in early November 2019. This play is different from all the other plays our school had  because everybody who went to the audition got a role in the show. To get a role the students had to show their musical talent. They had to sing a song, perform a dance they all studied before and they had to act a part of the script. Ms. Kocalis as the drama director, the musical director and a teacher’s assistant watched all the students show their talent. After the audience they had to decide who fits a certain role. After three days the final directions were made and a list with each student’s name and their role was published. In the end they had about 53 actors and the stage director with the stage crew. 

Ms. Kocalis had her first contact with the play Brigadoon when she went to San Diego in 2018 to judge a version of it. She really liked the play since it has so many different roles with different characteristics. When she got the script to it she changed at which time the present day of the play took place. In the original play the present day was 1940 and she changed it to today’s time. Kocalis says, “You can’t change words without the permission of the publisher”. They got the sheet music with the script.

After they got the music, two actors from the play choreographed all the dances for the songs. They took a lot of research about Scottish dances and created performances after them. After the choreography was set the two students taught the dances to the other actors. Usually they line up and learn their part for the dance. Learning the dances wasn’t easy because most of the students from the play didn’t dance before and the dance moves were hard to remember. The length of the dances were also challenging, the longest was up to seven minutes. They learned the dances while they had practice. The practice was three days a week from 5pm to 10pm. The actors had a schedule so they knew when they had to come to practice a scene or song they were in. Also the elementary kids who were in the play had the schedule and came to practice the scenes. 

The costumes that were used in Brigadoon are all inspired from Scottish clothes, they also looked up pictures or other versions of Brigadoon. The costumes are mostly from our school storage, some were bought online and some students had their own from home. Also some moms made new costumes out of old ones. Ms. Kocalis’ own costumes from her family’s renaissance fair ended up on stage too. She said that often objects or costumes out of your personal life end up on stage. 

In the end this show was special because more students bought tickets even when it was the oldest show they performed. This also underlines the amazing talent from the actors and the crew who all worked hard to bring a good performance to the audience. After watching the show, Ms. Kocalis hopes that people appreciate the power of true love.