Highland musical coming this weekend

Highland High School will run its performance of Into the Woods this weekend, a show that combines four fairy tales into one.

Highland Choir Director Jennifer McClenahan, who directs the school’s musicals, said the show was a natural choice.

“Last year we did Beauty and the Beast, and Chris Sass, of Sass farms, painted our set pieces last year,” she said. “At practice one night I said, ‘You know, if we did Into the Woods, we wouldn’t have to repaint the sets,’ … and all the kids went, ‘I love Into the Woods, let’s do that one next year’ and it just sort of decided itself.”

McClenahan said a great deal of work went into preparing for the musical, a grade requirement for Highland’s choir students.

“I’m the only adult involved. The kids, if they choose not to have a part, they’re doing something else like running sound, running lights,” she said. “They’re getting the full spectrum of learning how to put on a theatrical production of some kind.”

The play, which will performed on the stage in the school’s gymnasium, takes a lot of logistical thinking on top of the attention to drama and sound.

“You work out all the glitches and fix entrances that (for example,) you can’t come in on stage left because that’s where the tower’s going to stand,” McClenahan said. “The students are really brilliant with bringing forth ideas … It’s all part of the process.”

The play will run Nov. 5 and 6 in the high school gymnasium at 7 p.m.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com