Snow day affects musical’s opening night

Mason+Kellerman%2C+sophomore%2C+and+Willa+Burns%2C+senior%2C+rehearse+for+the+production.+

Media by Jilian Bunderson

Mason Kellerman, sophomore, and Willa Burns, senior, rehearse for the production.

On Wednesday night, at 9:53 p.m., Superintendent Dr. Eric Knost sent an email out to RSD announcing the first snow day in over a year. While many students celebrated, junior David Pisoni and other members of the Into the Woods cast sulked at the cancellation of their opening night.

“We were the few people who weren’t happy about the news,” Pisoni said. “We had been super excited to show it off because we love the show so much and we had been working on it for a long time so the news of a snow day was very disappointing.”

Along with the cancellation of their opening night, they were only able to have one dress rehearsal before their first performance. This was because of all after school activities being canceled on Monday.

Pisoni said this has brought on extra unneeded stress as he feels that they could be more prepared.

“At this point, it’s better to go out there and show them what we have been working so hard on opposed to stressing about what could go wrong,” Pisoni said.

Despite all the setbacks Pisoni said he is excited to perform in front of an audience because he thinks the cast is good and he is very proud of the show.

“I think the energy of the audience will help overcome the downfall of not having a true opening night,” Pisoni said.

Rebecca Blindauer, musical director, said she has never had an opening night canceled before.

“It was nice for everyone to rest, but I think with the amount of work these actors have put into the musical, they were bummed that their opening night got cancelled,” Blindauer said.

It is a tradition to perform in front of Selvidge and Crestview kids the Wednesday before opening night. With the cancellation of after school activities on Monday, the actors only had one dress rehearsal under their belts.

Blindauer said the cast was stressed to perform with only one dress rehearsal. To work out the mistakes, the cast stayed after school on Wednesday for one last dress rehearsal before opening night.

“When we left on Wednesday everyone felt that we were in good shape but when we got the call about school being canceled we were all bummed because we have been working on the show for so long,” Blindauer said.

With the cancellation of opening night, some teachers, students, and parents can no longer see the performance.

“It will affect profits a little but I don’t know how significant the effects will be. That is yet to be determined,” Blindauer said. “A lot of the people who had tickets either exchanged tickets or donated their money.”

Even with the cancellation of dress rehearsal and opening night, she said the actors are truly ready to perform.

“It was just one of those things that no one had control over, but I feel like they are really chomping at the bit for tonight because they are so excited to be able to perform in front of an audience,” Blindauer said.

Lily Size, junior, was devastated when she first heard about the snow day.

“Personally it was really discouraging because we were losing opening night,” Size said. “We’ve been working on this for months and it sucks that one out of three of our performance days got cut.”

Despite the loss of opening night, Size agrees with Blindauer that the cast is very motivated to put on two outstanding shows.

“I think the setback will filter into a better show tonight and tomorrow,” Size said. “Because we have less shows, it will make us want to cherish them as much as possible.”