Has anyone done Disney's High School Musical yet?  We're starting out a new "teen group" element to our local "kids" theatre and we're doing the show in May.  I'm trying to get a copy of the conductor's score early from MTI but my rep won't return my messages.  Does anyone know where to get a copy?  I can't find one and don't think one has been published by Hal Leonard or any other publishing company yet.

I would try emailing instead of calling - RoseanneG@mtishows.com - is the rep for Iowa.  Make sure to put your contract number in the subject line and she should get right back to you!

We are doing "High School Musical" on March 1 - 4, 2007, a first for this region.   We anticipate selling out all four performances.

My director had 98 middle school students audition!  So to include more in the show, she is taking 22 girls who did not make the cut and dressing them as "cheerleaders".  They will be the ushers and sell tickets and concessions.  Then later they'll dance through the aisles in the house to add punch to the finale'.

As the Technical Director, this show is rather simple for me to stage.  So my emphasis will be on the lighting.   In Act II, Scene 10, I will have to use very specific area lighting to show The Gym, The Theatre, and The Lab on thirds of the stage all at once.

One difference you will find in the stage version verses the Disney Channel movie is the addition of Jack the "Morning Announcements Kid".  His scenes were added as a theatrical device or bridge in order to "stall" while the crew changes the sets.   However, in a traditional proscenium stage, like mine, there is no user-friendly place on the apron to set up his announcement booth throughout the show.

My solution is to put Jack on closed-curcuit TV!   Many schools are wired for school news from a TV Lab, so this idea is more "modern" than the old PA microphone called for in the script.  Besides, the school in the movie is very new and ultra-modern in design...so surely they would have had video announcements there.   (Heck, if the school is so high-tech that kids can hack into the gym lighting by computer, then surely the announcements would not be on an ancient PA system!)

By coincidence I happen to be painting the back wall of MY theatre today!  Not only am I using the back wall for some of the Gym scenes, but also as the front of the school building for the opening scene on the "front steps". 

When it is the Gym, I will fly in various athletic championship banners in front of the upper wall and the crew will hang "Go Wildcats" posters on the lower wall.   Then when it is the Front Steps, we will bring in false windows, false double doors, and fly in a huge banner that says "Welcome Back Wildcats".

I received a good set of old lockers today too.  I'm only going to use them in the hallway scene and not in the locker room.  Because, as with most musical productions, there are more girls in the cast than boys.   So some of the kids on the basketball team are being played by girls.   The director thought it would appear odd to have a co-ed locker room.   So that scene will merely have some long benches and a red flip chart frame for the big photos.   I guess the audience will have to imagine this is some sort of athletic department classroom or coaches workroom.

But I will use this locker unit in the Hallway Scene and paint it all red and white like the school colors.   EXCEPT for Sharpay's individual locker, which will be pink.  Then the inside of her locker will be all tricked out with a mirror and a gooseneck LED flashlight overhead, and maybe a top shelf full of Thespian awards, etc...

I, too, will be flying my scenery.  Each interior location will be abstractly represented by a fragmentary hollywood flat above a different corner of the stage.   (Once again, these units will be painted in the school colors).  Attached to each triangular flat will be a scenic element that dictates which room we are in at the moment.  For instance a Table of Elements for the lab, or a poster of Shakespeare for the drama room, etc...

I have 12 battens available for flying these pieces.  But for safety, I will space each flat left or right of the next flat upstage, so there will be no collisions in the fly loft.   Luckily, I already have a half-scale false proscenium arch that is left over from last Fall's production of "Smile".  I will hang this center stage to represent the Theatre during the triple location song in Act II, Scene 10.

Speaking of wing space, our cast has 55 plus the 25 "finale' ushers".  That's 80!...plus a dozen stagehands.   So our wings will be tight as well.  To save on space, I am not using dozens of chairs during the cafeteria scene.   I was fortunate to find 5 giant cafeteria tables that have the benches already attached to each side.  They fold up in the middle so they can easily ROLL off stage!

For the Lab scene I am building 5 narrow card tables out of lightweight lauan plywood.   Behind the tables will be red and white wooden stools borrowed from out art teacher.   And for the Drama Classroom, I found 15 plastic school chairs that have little desktops attached.  So by storing the Lab stuff SL and the Drama stuff SR, I should be able to handle the space issues.  By the way, in order to keep the chorus under control backstage, I may ask them to stay seated at the 15 student desks off SR!

I was going to use my white cyclorama in the cafeteria scene and project some large window gobos across the top.   But after the first day of dance rehearsals, we worried that the "cast of thousands" would hit the cyc and damage it.   So as a compromise, I will use my ugly full-stage black velour traveler.     (Come to think of it, every single musical I have ever done has had ONE crappy "cross-over scene" where I had to use the black traveler).   Luckily the cafeteria scene is rather short!

I think I will move the white cyc downstage and light it with cloud gobos for the brief Rooftop Scene at the top of Act II.  Once again a very short scene.  But it would be nice to break things up a little by using the cyc...because the rest of the show is all INTERIOR locations!

Yes, I would be glad to post photos here when I get a chance.  -Dana