Story by Emily Bresette
Photos by Natalie Fitts
Standing on the auditorium stage, a group of faculty members rehearses a final time for their performance. Music teacher Michelle McIntire tries hard not to laugh after art teacher Theresa Wallerstedt says her opening lines. McIntire is trying so hard not to laugh that she cannot say her lines. Wallerstedt says McIntire’s lines in an attempt to cover for her.
This is the final rehearsal of the annual auction pep rally. Two weeks of rehearsals will come to an end in just three hours, when the entire school will finally get to witness their performance. Stopping only to fix technical problems that range from lighting and microphone issues to forgetting lines and dance moves, the STA teachers try to nail their parts.
The auction pep rally took place last Thursday afternoon. According to Wallerstedt, the faculty has wanted to perform this year’s theme of “Harry Potter”, based off of “A Very Potter Musical”, for years.
“We’ve wanted to do [‘Harry]Potter’ for a long time, and now that the movie’s wrapped, it seemed like a good time,” Wallerstedt said. ”Plus the theme of the auction is magic so it was perfect.”
Shana Prentiss, writer and director of this year’s pep rally, said that she and Wallerstedt have come up with the pep rally themes for the last several years.
“We talked about ‘Harry Potter’ and I said, ‘Well that’s going to be too obvious of a choice,’” Prentiss said. “That’s when I said, ‘What if we do the musical?’ No one is going to be expecting that.”
Prentiss started the script-writing process by taking one day to watch the entire A Very Potter Musical series online.
“From there, I just picked out songs that I thought would flow with [the plot] and work with it,” Prentiss said. “And then it took me maybe a couple hours to write [the script].”
According to McIntire, one of her favorite parts of the auction pep rally is reading over the script.
“It’s always a miracle to me how well Prentiss and Wallerstedt do putting the [pep rally script] together,” McIntire said. “It’s always a lot of fun getting the script and reading it the first time, I love that part.”
After writing the script, Prentiss casts the teachers for the pep rally.
“We have a group of people who want to do [the pep rally] every year,” Prentiss said. “So casting is usually pretty easy. It’s just sort of thinking about who fits these parts perfectly.”
Prentiss said that although there is a group of people who always want to perform in the pep rally, everyone is welcome to participate.
“We also get a lot of new people,” Prentiss said. “That’s always a lot of fun. Like Mr. Sanem; I’m so excited for [his part] and Ms. Sirridge is awesome. I look at these people and go ‘Oh I’m giving you more next year.’ They’re just really good.”
According to Wallerstedt, rehearsals for the pep rally were laid back and enjoyable. Cast members could often be found laughing at each other and themselves during rehearsals. For instance, during one practice, when Sanem said his line, “Stupid muggles, I didn’t sell a single ticket,” Prentiss burst out laughing and said, “That’s my favorite line in the whole thing.” The entire room followed suit and had to take a minute to compose themselves.
Prentiss said that although some faculty members missed rehearsal because of tutoring or being sick, this is not a problem when it comes to the overall quality of the pep rally.
“That’s normal,” Prentiss said. “We’re kind of used to [teachers missing rehearsals], and not having everyone there. But we give ourselves two weeks [to rehearse]. It never seems like it’s going to be enough time, but we somehow always manage to pull it together.”
Although McIntire said her one of her favorite parts of the pep rally is reading over the script, she also enjoys spending time with teachers she doesn’t see as often.
“I really enjoy the commraderie of it all,” McIntire said. “We don’t have to be in charge all the time. This is the time when those of us who are goofy can be goofy. ”
Prentiss agrees with McIntire and says she loves helping with the skit.
“I love being a part of [the auction pep rally],” Prentiss said. “It’s hilarious to watch the faculty try and figure all this out. There are certain people that love doing [the skit] every year, but they’re not really actors. But they always manage to pull it off and it’s always so much fun.”
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