‘A Year with Frog and Toad’: CMHS drama club to perform classic series in early May
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MILL HALL -- Hop your way to the Central Mountain High School auditorium for a whimsical musical based on Arnold Lobel's hit book series!
Central Mountain High School Drama Club is performing, "A Year with Frog and Toad" on May 12 and 13 at 7 p.m. and May 14 at 2:30 p.m. The show is open to the public, with general admission $8 and students $5.
"A Year with Frog and Toad" tells the story of two best friends who celebrate and rejoice in the differences that make them unique. Frog, Toad and their friends do various activities together such as gardening, flying kites, swimming in the pond and even skipping rope with a large and terrible frog.
The performance will be a song-filled year in the life of these two characters, full of jazzy, upbeat music and a heartwarming series of vignettes, the whole family will be captivated.
The musical contains music by Robert Reale and book and lyrics by Willie Reale and was originally presented on Broadway by Bob Boyett, Adrianne Lobel, Michael Gardner, Lawrence Horowitz and Roy Furman.
"I came up in this program in high school," said Ericka Conklin, Drama Club advisor. "I came back because I wanted to give back. Theater is, in a lot of ways, the reason for my continued existence. I felt a strong pull to come back to the area."
Claire Bowman, the student playing Toad, said, "This is my first true lead. It's a good cast, it's always a really good environment. You could be any different kind of person and have a place here -- if you don't want to be on stage? Do stage crew. If you want to paint, we have all kinds of props to do. There's something for everyone."
The club works hard together to make the creation of the performance a smooth process.
Natalia Esguerra, an exchange student from Spain, has even found a place in the group of students. Esguerra has been painting for the props on set.
Kaidyn Rogers, the student playing Frog, said, "With such a small cast it was interesting coming in, sometimes smaller cast shows can be frightening -- you never know what the energy will be. With this show it's been so great. We all knew each other (before), so we all work together really well, super quick."
The general consensus among the cast was how cute and fun the show is; it's above all else a family show that is fun for all ages.
Connor Kleckner, who has numerous roles within the show, said, "It's about two friends and a year in their lives. My favorite part of the show is our end of Act 1 song, 'Cookies.' It's a very energetic song. It's going to be very fun once we have the audience in here."
Everyone had a different favorite part of the musical, from the opening number to "Shivers" and more.
"'Get a Load of Toad' is really fun," said Chloe Corbin, who also plays numerous roles within the show. "It was the first number that we learned… A lot of people get to do their own special characters. That's where our character bases come from -- it's always my favorite part of the show."
Every member of the cast has been adding their own personal touch to the roles they're playing, according to Conklin.
"One thing that has been really great (with the cast) is watching them make the characters their own," said Conklin. "In a lot of ways 'Frog and Toad' characters are really two dimensional. They're playing animals without names. I've done this show in different locations before and I've never seen anyone take Mouse (Chloe Corbin) in the direction that she has. It was really fun and unexpected."
On top of their performances, the Drama Club is touring the community and getting involved with various events and businesses.
They have encouraged kids young and old to meet with the cast, hear the classic stories from Arnold Lobel and have a sneak peak of the musical! They've already gone to the Ross Library, The Bus Stops Here and the Friendship Library in Beech Creek.
The cast also plans on attending the Clinton County Carnival at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday and Saturday as well as 6-8 p.m. on Friday.
They will also be at Avenue 209 at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 29.
Their final scheduled community tour is Friday, May 5, at 5 p.m. at Main St. Books.
"We hope to have a big turn out to come and support these students. They've done an incredible amount of work and should be recognized for it," said Conklin, "The students have all done a great job."