Staring At the Audience: Curtain Call

By Sophia Vicari

Wow—I have performed my last musical and my last spring concert at Sterling High School.  I don’t think it’s quite sunken in yet.

            As upsetting as it is to be done performing in Sterling Musicals, I am relieved that Damn Yankees! is over.  Honestly, this show was more stressful than last year’s Fiddler.  The Saturday before the show, we were a hot mess.  Monday’s dress rehearsal went better, but we were all still extremely concerned.  Tuesday we had some dance rehearsal after school, which is unusual because Tuesday night is the orchestra rehearsal so we usually have the afternoon off.  That is how much of a mess we were.  Wednesday night went better than Monday, and we thought: We might be able to pull this off.  Thursday night was a big success, and I couldn’t believe that a few days prior we couldn’t even complete a cue-to-cue (running each scene transition).  Friday night we nicknamed the “Improv Show”, and I’ll never forget going behind the set to get ready for bows and Brandon Smith (sophomore, Van Burren) saying, “That was the best improv show ever!”  Saturday’s shows went really well, and—and then it was all over.  

The cast party was so much fun, and this year I was the senior crying for the end of a beloved chapter of my life.  I’ve been in shows with Chelsea (senior, Gloria) and Sarah (junior, Miss Westin) and Cora (junior, Girl) since the summer after sixth grade, and Jessica (junior, Teenager #1) and I have been in musicals together since third grade.  Paul McGroarty, who played a fantastic devil, Mr. Applegate, and I have played mother-and-son, lovers, and it was such a blessing to play off of each other one last time this year on the stage.  I can’t believe Damn Yankees! was our last one together.  Kylie Rogers (junior, GLoria) did fabulous as GLoria and I’ll miss our backstage encouragement rituals.  Peter White (sophomore) played a great JOe Hardy, and James Carman (junior) did a fantastic double-part of Joe Boyd and Smokey.  Meg was played by the beautiful senior with a beautiful voice, Emily Krowicki.  The student choreographers, including Kaitlyn Huesken (junior), Mike Ivins (junior), and Jessica Ware did an amazing job too!  My red nail polish chipped away in the days after the show, but I kept it on as long as I could because I wasn’t ready to part with Lola.

            Because the musical ran so late, it really put us behind with choreography for the Spring Concert.  We were so behind, in fact, that we were still learning things the morning of!  I had so much fun dancing Jessica’s Circle of Life choreography-- it was an African-modern piece, and I loved going into low swoops, leaping stag jumps, mixing fast and slow movements,  flexing my feet—it was all great fun!  What was really cool about the piece was that each dancer represented a different animal— senior Ashlynn Mercer was a lioness who killed me, a gazelle, senior Ben Muska was a zebra and even acted as a tree for senior Matt Dieterle’s monkey, and Jessica Ware was a bird.  Another one of my favorite songs to sing that night was “Be Prepared” from The Lion King—I love songs in a lower-range and when we saw Lion King on Broadway that was one of my favorite numbers—I looooove Scar’s voice!  The “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” soloists, Cora Kelly and Brandon Smith, did phenomenally, as well as our Rafiki Emily Krowicki.  I had a fun time dancing with my freshman, Ian Taylor, to the old-fashioned-style song By the Sea.  He was so much fun to dance with throughout the various performances this year and I will miss him so much-- but look out Sterling, you’ll be seeing much more of Ian Taylor in the future!  We also performed the Silvertones show, One Love.  It was really weird being one of the seniors mentioned at the concert—I am so not ready to graduate!

            Up next we’re singing at the Baccalaureate, and then the quartet of Ben Muska, Matt Dieterle, Emily Krowicki, and Chelsea Korn will sing at graduation.  

I have performed countless times on Sterling’s stage, and have even won a pageant on the stage, and I certainly will miss its comforting familiarity as I go through life.  It has been a roller coaster, Sterling, but I am so blessed to have made the friends and memories I now cherish!

I will miss Staring at the Audience from the Sterling stage.