When watching a musical, the spotlight is focused on the lead actors. What the audience doesn’t realize is that even the ensemble has to put in hours, days, and months of work just for a seemingly simple role. Performing, even at the back of the stage, isn’t as easy as the cast makes it look.
The Ridgecrest Musical Enrichment Society (RMES) will be performing the musical Mary Poppins. Senior Olive Patterson, an ensemble dancer, describes the musical as lively and magical, giving credit to the tech crew for being the reason the magic on stage can look so real.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Patterson’s favorite song from the musical, represents the magic of Mary Poppins with the upbeat choreography.
“I really like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” said Patterson, “I love Ms. Corey’s dialogue before the song starts and the choreography is really fun.”
Another member of the ensemble, junior Khloe Olson, says that the message of Mary Poppins is a “family learning to love each other and be whole again.” While Olson is a beginner, she still has to put in a tremendous amount of hours for her role as an ensemble member, mentioning that there are four-hour rehearsals every day.
“It’s been amazing getting to see it develop with our cast and crew,” said Olson, “I think this play will be a hit!”
A musical is supposed to have emotion shown through the singing and acting; an art that makes the audience become flooded with emotion. Senior Emilia Tippetts, the bear who comes alive under the magic of Mary Poppins, talked about how she cried over the music and the multilayered grown up themes that can still be understood by children.
“I’ve always had a lot of emotion,” said Tippetts, “and this is my way to channel it and show people how much it means to me.”
Tippetts has put in around 280 hours into the musical alone. She has had a love for singing and acting ever since she was five years old, her first professional musical being Mary Poppins, making her performance an ever bigger deal.
Everyone in RMES, even the ones at the back of the stage, want you to see how much they love performing along with how much effort everyone puts into the show. Musical theater isn’t easy, so the cast has to put in the effort to make it look easy.
