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By Hannah Ellington, Staff Writer
Photos by Ben Tran, Nighthawk News Magazine

In this week’s spring musical, First Flight takes a humorous look at how to deal with misogynistic views. Based on the 1980 movie of the same name, “9 to 5” is a musical about women who are fed up with getting treated as inferiors in their workplace.

The StageKraft musical will premiere Thursday, March 16, at 7 p.m. in the FFHS auditorium, with a second show Friday at 7 and the finale taking place Saturday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $6 for students, children and senior citizens and $8 for adults.

The show promises comedic relief while empowering women at the same time.

“It’s very funny and a lot different than the show we did during the fall, and at the end it has a really good message about empowerment and about changing your life when you need to change it,” said senior Sarah Skinner, who works as stage manager.

The show features the president of Consolidated Industries, Franklin Hart Jr., as a lying bigot and a terrible boss to three women: Violet Newstead, Judy Bernly and Doralee Rhodes. Throughout the musical, these women struggle to prove they are more than what he says, and they fantasize about how they would deal with Hart if they had their chance.

“I’m singing, I’m dancing, I act in a couple of scenes and I’m this horrible guy,” said senior Jacob Poli, who plays Hart. “He’s jumped up the company quicker than anybody has ever seen and he’s a real mean guy to these women. He’s very sexist, misogynistic. He’s very egotistical and he’s just an all-around mean guy.”

Senior Sara Cook plays the role of Violet, senior Katy Spore is Judy, and junior Kiersten Lewis performs as Doralee in the three lead female roles. The show is directed by Monica Penn and Lauren Deal.

The amount of work that has to be put into a musical within three months is time-consuming and awe-inspiring. The actors have to constantly rehearse scenes, music and choreography to get everything right and running smoothly. The times at which they rehearse after school vary, but sometimes they will practice for over four hours, especially for the last 10 days before opening day. Sometimes referred to as “Hell Week,” in the theater world, the last 10 days are where lots of rigorous work is done both by the actors and tech members.

“Basically, we watch the show beforehand without us doing anything. The stage manager calls out things like ‘sound cue here, lighting cue here, this gotta be moved here, curtain go,’ ” said senior Avery Daniels, who works on sound effects and music. “The first day is where most of that is actually happening for the first time. It can be a trainwreck. And a lot of actors, they get really nervous because it’s halfway into Hell Week and this person is still not on cue for this, which most of the time is me because it takes awhile to get it,” Daniels added with a laugh.

Running the show is considered anything but easy. As stage manager, Skinner has to do a lot of scheduling and organizing to get the show running smoothly. While the show goes on, she will be in the sound booth barking orders through a headset. For Skinner, it’s a great opportunity to be a part of the whole thing.

“I liked being a stage manager because beforehand I mainly just dealt with tech and I dealt with other people backstage, but I’ve gotten to watch the actors go throughout their entire process of the performance and seeing how hard they’ve worked has been a pretty cool thing,” Skinner said.

While being part of tech does require a lot of hard work, there are a few perks.

“It gets kind of boring, but I get to see the whole show,” said sophomore OJ Sawtell, who works with spotlighting.

For many on the stage and on the tech crew, this is not their first show, and they have been passionate about theater for years.

“I did a show in fifth grade and then I did some in my middle school years and I soon fell in love with theater in general and the people that are incorporated in it,” said senior Nicole Castano, who plays secretary Roz Keith, the character who is in love with Hart and wants to do her job to the best of her ability. “It’s a new way to express yourself and you really do make lifelong relationships with other people, and it’s just fun.”

That’s what makes all the hard work worth it.

“It’s going to be amazing and everyone should come see it,” sophomore ensemble member Emma Seay said. “We are working very hard trying to get all the dancing and singing done so by the end we’ll have it perfect.”

Especially for all the seniors involved, the chance to put on one last show is one they relish.

“I’m just really excited, super hype for this,” Castano said. “It’s our final thing to do and we’ve worked so hard on it and everyone is so talented and I think everyone is going to be so pleased and excited for this. It’s definitely going to be something that will make you laugh.”

Sophomore Hannah Ellington can be reached at [email protected].