BY Meghan Vogt
LifeAtStart.com Reporter

Start’s fall musical this year is everyone’s favorite Little Shop of Horrors. News of this being the musical was made public August 8^th, but rumors of this production being an option began at the end of the spring play, MASH. This left all summer for prospective cast members to prepare for their all-important auditions. An entire summer of reviewing music and practicing characterization, however, cannot prepare students for the disappointment of unfair circumstances.

The cast for this musical is extremely small: three male principles and four female principles, but over forty audition packets had been handed out. The added competition made those auditioning quite worried. After the audition workshop on September 3^rd, a group of half a dozen seniors stood together sharing their worries.  These seniors were among the most loyal to past productions. Loyal meaning they showed up to over ninety percent of daily rehearsals, learned their lines quickly, were strong performers who other cast members looked up to and were often complemented due to this impressive behavior. Nancy Ludden, the drama director, approached this group of students and assured them, “don’t worry” once she had heard their concerns of not being casted. This relieved the seniors slightly because they trusted Mrs. Ludden to make the right decisions when it came to casting the show.

In the days following the audition workshop, several students, who were planning to audition for the musical in less than a week, became sick with sore throats. Voices were lost and spirits were low. Musical auditions consist of one thing: singing. The seniors who had fallen ill were afraid they may not even get a part in their last musical. They’ve been in past productions, though, so the casting team knows that they can sing even if their sore throats keep the notes from coming out perfectly… Right?

Auditions came Wednesday and Thursday. Many students decided to audition on Thursday to give their sick voices another day to hopefully improve. Twelve to 16 students, nearly equally split into seniors and underclassmen, stayed for call backs. Not very many students had been asked to read for leads, though, and the handful that did read for principle parts did not consist of but a few seniors. They were beginning to get very anxious. The cast list was posted on Mrs. Ludden’s door Friday morning before school.

The list was outrageous. Out of the 11 singing roles casted, only five of them were seniors. The group of seniors who were told not to worry about getting parts were heart broken. Only two of them had gotten roles. The remaining four were thrown into the ensemble. The casting choices had become the topic of conversation in every single class period.

Loyal seniors not getting leads was not the sole reason behind the anger that arose in so many drama members. Let me explain some of the others. Two girls who would definitely not fit the definition of loyal or reliable regarding theater productions were given the biggest parts. The first girl had one of the worst attendance records during the spring production, and the other quit the last musical. Also, according to the casting team everyone was “so good,” but reliable seniors were still outed by underclassmen. The most betrayal was felt by those seniors who were just a week ago assured by their beloved and trusted director not to worry about the casting. From that moment on, though they still stressed on the outside about auditioning, a part inside them was set at ease by those few words. Deep inside them they knew everything was going to be okay.

Things were not okay.

These seniors knew that a couple underclassmen really deserved to be casted and had a very good chance of being principles, but they didn’t imagine that small singing roles that were only a dozen bars long would be handed to freshmen and newcomers over them. Good singers and confident performers had been over looked and now would not get a part in their senior musical. Perhaps one of the most upsetting aspects of the casting decision was that of the lead. Several seniors were told by a casting team member that they did not want the previous male lead to be the male lead again in this production for various reasons. However, his name sat atop the cast list as the lead as if his shaky past performances had not been taken into consideration this time around.

In my four years of being in drama, through six productions, the cast listing for this show has definitely been the most emotional. When the first rehearsal comes, I can imagine the air being thick with tension, but only for the first day. Fortunately, the drama club is the most unified club in the school, so the tension will not last for long. I assure you that, though this club is dramatic, the ill feelings never last more than a weekend, and the cast always comes together to make the show spectacular.

BY Kaylah Kislan
LifeAtStart.com Reporter

With school back in full swing, students are now tasked with acing the dreaded tests. For some, tests are no problem. We all know those people. Never studied, but somehow always pulled the highest grade in class. For others, a little effort is needed to achieve the desired grade. Whatever the case may be, study tips are good to know. After all, you don’t want to find yourself in college without proper study technique.

One tip, according to Greatist.com, caught my attention more than any of the other tips.

“Study when sleepy” was the first listed. Sounds promising, right? Or like a 40 year old man wanted to trick kids into getting bad grades and would do so by coming up with bad tips.

Turns out, research shows students who sneak in a quick study session in right before bed retain the information they reviewed with great success. This works because during sleep, our brains strengthen new memories. Meaning the things we learn right before bed will be easily recalled the next day. Careful though, don’t cram six chapters in before bed or you risk losing sleep, which would be way worse than not studying at all.

I will be trying this great tip along with others in the upcoming weeks. Give them a try and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Contact Kaylah at [email protected]

By Drew Russell
LifeAtStart.com Reporter

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Since that is true, a splatter of red paint on a blank canvas can be sold for millions in the art world. Art is controversial, evolving, and different to everyone.

Movies are an art form. They create feelings and evoke ideas, and what’s good varies from person to person. You could think Transformers: Age of Extinction was the best movie of last year.

You would be wrong. But that’s your opinion…

And that’s okay. Movies are meant to get people talking and even to think about subjects they may never have taken seriously otherwise.

I understand that sounds a bit profound when you think of movies like Transformers which are only made to earn the production studio some money. It’s even harder to take that notion seriously when you think of all the unasked for and uncalled for sequels, prequels, reboots, spin-offs and adaptions. It’s hard to love something that’s been done four times.

But there is still originality that’s more worth watching and talking about than something like a live action Winnie the Pooh movie. Movies like Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Whiplash are three original ideas that came out last year and justify movies as an art form.

However, opinions are what makes all movies art, and not just if they’re good. If you hated a movie, that means you made an opinion and that movie made you feel something. And sometimes hating a movie is more fun than if you liked it anyways. You remember the movies you despise and forget the ones that were just alright.

As a reviewer, I’ll try and explain the movies I’m discussing in a way so that you can form your own opinion on it before I give you mine. Because my opinion is just that. An opinion.

The only way for you to know if you’d like a film that I hate is for you to see it, because it’s alright to like something I hate, as long as you’re having a good time at the movies.

What you have to keep in mind is the what I see as a splatter of red paint, you could see as something beautiful.

School for most people means the end of freedom and the beginning of pointlessly complex math equations that won’t help you in life unless you become a rocket scientist. I would agree with most people. However, the past few years I’ve looked forward to summer ending and school starting. I don’t hate summer, it just represents something in the back of my head that I don’t want to accept.

In the past, summer was what I looked forward to most every year. What’s not to look forward to? You can stay up late, you’re free of responsibility, and you can do things with your friends as often as you want. But as I got into high school, summer wasn’t so luxurious anymore.

The friends I used to spend every day with before weren’t around anymore or just weren’t the same people as they used to be. The lack of responsibility was filled with the notion that it’s time for me to get a job, to stop relying on other people for money and food, which would be normal if I were a few years younger. I was filled with shame that I wasn’t doing what I should be at my age. So summer, which used to be the ideal time to be a child, has ironically come to represent growing up in my mind.

School is the opposite.

School is where the people you know are, where the people you knew are, and the people you will know are. It somehow formulates into something like nostalgia, nostalgia for what I’m living in at the present. I miss it already because it won’t be the same in nine months when school lets out. At this age, nothing is permanent.

There’s something tragically romantic about it all that only a John Hughes movie could capture. People take every day so seriously when they should just be enjoying what the have at the moment, because the friends they have now might not be the friends they have in a year. These are the last days we have before true responsibility takes over, when we’re not-so-gently pushed from the nest and are forced to fly or fall.

I just try and enjoy the people in my life now before I can’t anymore, and school is the place for that.

Contact Andrew: [email protected]