Musicals range from magic to mathletes
From the north end of Steele County to the south, area students are putting the final touches on their lines, their marks and their songs.
The Blooming Prairie High School fall musical is the classic Mary Poppins, which will be presented at 7 p.m. Nov. 12-14 at the Performing Arts Center.
A dinner theater featuring British cuisine is planned for the Nov. 14 production, with the meal beginning at 5:30 p.m.
In Medford, a young but experienced cast will perform a lesser-known musical: The 57th Annual Mathlete Sum-It.
The performances will be at 7 p.m. Nov. 13; and 2 p.m. Nov. 14 and 15, all at the Medford Auditorium.
BPHS musical
The magical Mary Poppins is tasked with the care of Jane and Michael Banks, two naughty children whose dysfunctional and distracted parents are at their wits’ end.
Mary, too, struggles with their behavior, and decides to leave the home.
Their father’s childhood nanny takes over with a much harsher style; Jane and Michael decide that running away is the only solution. Instead, Mary returns, and the two nannies argue – with Mary the victor.
The word “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” plays a pivotal role in the story, which ends with the Banks family happily reunited.
Also reunited are co-directors Tammy Johnson and Kari Hughes, who have worked together on BPHS musicals for more than 20 years.
They handle all aspects of the production together, with Hughes focusing on the vocal training and coaching.
“She also runs the sophisticated sound system,” Johnson said, “juggling 24 microphones between 32 cast members” and spearheading the elaborate choreography for “Supercalifragilistic…”
BPHS, too, has a young cast – just two seniors among a cast of 32, including nine newcomers.
“The biggest surprise has been how beautifully this young cast has stepped up and embraced anything I’ve asked of them,” said Johnson. “I’m very proud of them.”
But bringing magic to life is complex.
The biggest challenge, Johnson said, is “coordinating the technical supporting tasks, auditorium lighting and orchestra,” all done by adults in the community who are volunteering their time and talent.
“Our backstage crew expanded to five, and the lights (crew) expanded to four,” she said. “The sets and scene changes are extensive. All these factors have to work together seamlessly for the students to perform.”
Easing the burden somewhat was a connection with Richfield High School, which provided many props and set pieces, Johnson said, “and Luke Winzenburg has designed numerous digital backdrops, which will be used in our auditorium for the first time. Luke, his family, and Jeremy and Sara Reinke have built our amazing sets.”
While this Broadway version is slightly different from the movie, she added, “young children will really enjoy it, and adults will remember Disney’s classic movie.”
Adult tickets are $10 each, $30 for the dinner performance; student tickets are $5 each, $25 for the dinner performance.
There are no cash sales at the door; to purchase tickets, visit https://www.gobound.com/mn/schools/bloomingprairie/tickets
MHS musical
While most people have heard of Mary Poppins, very few have heard of Mary Kate, a member of an almost all-girl high school math team from Waukesha, Wis.
She is joined by three other girls and Leroy, the lone male member of the team.
Mary Kate is played by Leona Malecha, an eighth-grader.
She is one of several eighth-graders in the cast, along with a few seventh-graders and three sophomores. There is just one senior involved: Landon Seiler plays the drums in the pit band.
Leona discovered her love of theater after working on the crew for last winter’s one-act play.
“This is the very first one I’ve tried out for,” she said. “When we did the one-act, I thought it was really fun, so I thought I wanted to try auditioning for something. This play popped up, and I was like, ‘you know what? Why not?’ I tried out, got the role … and it’s been amazing.
“Everyone’s just so cooperative, and the people are amazing, too,” Leona said, “and in theater, it’s either cooperate or you can’t do anything.”
In the musical, when their math team loses at Regionals because team captain Melissa is overcome by her public-speaking anxiety, the team gets a reprieve.
Their rivals from Oshkosh High School got caught cheating and were disqualified, allowing the Waukesha team to take their spot at the national competition.
Many of the team remain angry at Melissa, who was kicked off the team. She is played by sophomore Vera Scheer.
That’s all within the first few minutes; the rest of the musical follows Melissa as she works with the team’s chaperone – the drama-teacher-turned-janitor Mr. McGery – to conquer her stage fright so she can lead them in the big competition.
Scheer, too, loves theater – so much so, she hopes to be a film actress someday, “but I like stage, too,” she said.
She’s been in multiple productions, including works by Shakespeare, building her experience and her portfolio.
It’s made her role as Melissa, the team captain, a bit more challenging.
“A few times, (Melissa) says, ‘I’m not a theater person, I’m a left-brained person,’ but I’m the entire opposite,” Scheer said. “But I can also find ways to relate to the character.”
She is grateful to Ollie Schmidt, who teaches music at the elementary school and choir at the middle and high schools.
Schmidt and Randy Domstrand, who teaches English and theater at MHS, are co-directors of the musical.
The last musical at the school was The Addams Family, in 2019.
“After that, he’d been trying to get this play going since then,” Schmidt said. “At one point, he had a cast, but people were dropping out and they couldn’t do it.”
When she was hired at MPS four years ago, “this was like a ghost town,” Schmidt said of the auditorium stage. “It was used as storage, and we’re like, ‘we need to bring something back,’ and I told Randy I wanted to do something.”
A native of Owatonna, Schmidt has a minor in theater – and has been acting since she was a child.
Domstrand was reluctant at first, she said, so they started with a one-act play last winter.
“Post-COVID, extracurriculars – and I believe it’s safe to say nationwide – took a hit,” Domstrand said. “We’re a small program to begin with, so it became, for a period of time, impossible to even put on a small” production.
He knows, because he tried, repeatedly.
“I’d plan a show, schedule auditions, got a dozen people or so,” Domstrand said. “They would audition, and I’d wind up with three or four – certainly not enough to do a musical. A small cast, one-act play was tough.”
So, he admitted, “I got a little burned out from investing hours of time to try to pull something together and then hitting a brick wall every time.”
Then Schmidt was hired, “and she was here with fresh eyes and enthusiasm,” Domstrand said. “And that sort of reinvigorated me. Without Ollie’s excitement … I had basically just called myself done.”
The lack of interest from high schoolers prompted a pivot; they created a theater club for middle-school age students at the end of the 2024-25 school year.
“It was primarily seventh- and eighth-graders,” Domstrand said, because sixth-graders aren’t allowed to participate in MSHSL-sanctioned activities, which includes the one-act play.
“They could come to theater club and hang out,” Schmidt said, “and they did. They still learned how theater works and learned about the different parts. I have a couple of seventh-graders now who are super-interested.”
Schmidt was able to ease Domstrand back into a director role with that one-act play, and the spark was back.
“We’re really fortunate to have Ollie,” he said. “All these people here are fortunate.”
Domstrand “stumbled onto” the current production while specifically looking for a play that could be performed with a small cast, unsure how many students would audition for the school’s first musical in seven years.
The cast and crew total 18, most of them doing double-duty by helping the crew with set changes.
Members of the school staff and the community are chipping in, too: Lyn Andrews, a special education teacher at Medford, is playing the keyboard in the pit band; Jessica Warner, of Medford, is using her artistic abilities on the sets.
That support means the world to the directors, who believe it’s a great example of showing the theater kids that they’re appreciated.
“I think for some people, it’s the only place they (feel like they) fit in,” Domstrand said. “To have a place that feels safe and comfortable is a big deal.”
“We want to give them a space,” Schmidt said. “I hope we see more kids getting creative, and more kids being like, ‘oh, I can do that.’ I hope this gets people back and it gets them excited again – and we see this space being … like this,” she said, gesturing to a stage full of students laughing and bustling about.
“I hope that we revive interest in live theater, in performing and the behind-the-scenes, backstage work that’s required,” Domstrand added.
This particular musical, which was awarded the best new youth musical in 2017, tends to fly in the face of stereotypes, he said, especially in the traditional roles often assigned to people.
“It’s lovely. It hits these messages without being preachy,” he said.
Tickets are $5 for adults; students are admitted free with their ID. A website for card, cash and check will be available at the door. For more information, visit MMAT-MHS’s Music, Art, Theater page on Facebook.