Musical ended with a high note

By Winter Brooks

Editor in Chief

Crete-Monee High School’s rendition of Sister Act was an amazing showcase of young talent. This musical is about a young woman who is running away from her abusive ex-lover. She hides in a convent and ends up making lifelong friends. The drama club worked from January to April to make this show an awesome experience for the cast, crew, combo, and audience. 

The cast of Sister Act smile on set.

“I think the casting was really good. The actors were very good at what they did,” said Grace Janecko.

Sister Act is a hefty project to take on. The script and the score were much larger than in past shows. A ton of work goes into creating a musical, choreography, costuming, memorization, and music. With this show, the cast, crew, and combo needed extra hard work to complete this project. 

“I have a bunch of friends who are in the theatre program, and I know there’s a lot done behind the scenes like how backstage crew happens and how long it takes y’all to get ready for the plays and musicals,” said Alicia Gomez.

Mrs. Hysell directs our drama club; however, many other directors stepped in to help make this show magical. Mr. Mohr and Mr. Alifantis directed the music, Mr. Grib and Mr. Allie directed the combo, and Mr. J directed the crew. Without all of these core people, the show would not have been as successful as it was. 

“I absolutely loved it. I think that we did such a great job with all our musicals. I especially loved how the students got into character playing the nuns. I thought it was great,” said Mrs. Valerio.

There were many fun moments in Sister Act, such as dancing nuns wearing glittery robes, some comedic villains, and a love story. 

“I really liked Deloris’ solo ‘Sister Act,’ it’s very emotional. I also liked it whenever all the nuns were on stage. It was very funny,” said Mr. Alifantis.

No matter the positive attitude toward the performances, there is always room to improve. Sister Act is a very difficult show and with that comes some obstacles. 

“I realized some of the timing was off,” said Gomez, “and I know from other people in the show that a lot of the cues were not met, and there were a lot of issues. But overall, I couldn’t tell; they covered it up really nicely.”

There are many moving parts to a musical. The actors need to learn their lines, their blocking, music cues, and lyrics and melodies. Crew needs to know where to put set pieces, light cues, sound cues, and scene changes. Combo needs to know cue lines and the tempo of each song. All actors, crew, and combo learn these things separately so when everyone combines during tech week, it’s chaotic for a while. 

“I wish we were ready a little bit earlier,” said Mr. Alifantis, “I felt like we were very last minute being ready to perform.”