The annual junior high musical will run in the Hamburge Theater on February 23 – 25, and just like in previous years, the practice of having student directors is once again an essential part of the junior high play experience. 

The high school students will be helping with the execution of BSM’s production of “Beauty and the Beast, but they won’t be alone. Mr. Scott Effertz, the media specialist and the director of the whole drama department, and Ms. Caroline Stroh, the box office manager and the head of costume production, will be running the show. 

The idea of student directing for the junior high play has become somewhat of a tradition in the recent years. The student directors can be from any high school grade, but the majority are upperclassmen. “We have been doing student directing for a while, and they have proven to be very helpful so we have decided to keep inviting them back every year,” music teacher Mr. Adam Petroski, who helps coordinate the musical, said.

The student directors help execute the play, but also use their talents to focus on what needs to be done in certain areas. “Basically, they are all assigned a certain activity to help with depending on their strengths whether it be choreography, costumes, music, backstage, etc. Then they help either teach the music, teach the dance, help create costumes, or build the set and help collect props. They all have very unique jobs and are very helpful to the production,” Petroski said.

The student directors this year are seniors Brielle Baker, Maddie Schafer, Andrew Plouff, and Blake Brown, juniors Luis Moijca and Jenna Ritten, and sophomores Veronica Nowakowski and Nadya Mojica.

Some of the student directors are new to directing and others have experience in the field of directing. Baker is in her second year of directing the junior high play. “I came back for another year because it is just a fun thing to do, the junior high kids look up to us when we direct them and that actually makes it easier. The kids are easy to control and it is different this year because of the new stage director (Shelley Gorak) and how organized she is. We have a whole schedule for when we are supposed to be there this year, unlike last year when we just showed up when we could,” Baker said.