Hollister
– Put on your poodle skirt and grab your hoola hoops. The 1950s
are coming back to Hollister.
Hollister – Put on your poodle skirt and grab your hoola hoops. The 1950s are coming back to Hollister.
San Benito Stage Company’s production of “Bye Bye Birdie” – a teen musical comedy about high school romance and rock ‘n’ roll – opened Friday and runs through next weekend at the Granada Theater.
The production is performed by a cast of about 30 teenagers, with a few older folks from the community filling out the adult rolls. Much of the cast is made up of busy high school students who juggle their theater rehearsals along with school and their various other activities.
San Benito High School senior Harrison Yager plays the title role – teen idol Conrad Birdie who is strikingly reminiscent of Elvis Presley during his early years.
Yager, 17, squeezes play rehearsal in after track practice and before studying for his numerous advanced placement classes. He said sometimes he can get slightly overwhelmed trying to juggle his various commitments, but most the time he doesn’t mind.
“It’s worth it because it’s fun,” Yager said. “Being as it’s my last year, I thought I’d make the most of it.”
Dealing with busy schedules is just a natural part of putting on community productions with teenagers, said the play’s director, Mary Casillas. But, she said, it’s worth it.
“They’re juggling a lot. Generally, these kids that are involved on stage are involved with everything,” Casillas said. “But the level of talent is high. When we held auditions, I was floored at the amount of talent that came through.”
The talented cast helps bring to life the memorable song and dance numbers of the popular musical. Casillas said that one of the primary reason the San Benito Stage Company chose “Bye Bye Birdie” as its teen musical was because of strong urgings from the teens themselves.
“We chose this as our teen musical because it’s fun and upbeat,” theater company board member and set designer Tricia Harvey said.
Some of the songs – like “Put on a Happy Face” – are well known, but even the lesser known numbers will have the audience humming along.
Casillas said that, although the story of teen romance is timeless, she had to work with her students so that they understood some of the 1950s references. Yager admitted he didn’t know if the Ed Sullivan Show – referenced through a song in the show – was real or fictional.
“It has been a learning experience about how things were done back then,” Casillas said. “It’s a farce on the Elvis Presley era, when he was going into the service. They don’t have an idol (now) that they would scream and cry when they came on stage. I’ve asked them to watch videos of the Beatles.”
Casillas she is proud of how much the students learn and hope it will pay off, with a lot of people attending the play.
Harvey said that so far, tickets sales have been low. Because the company is a non-profit community theater group, they need people to attend in order to pay expenses.
“We’re struggling. We need more community support,” Harvey said.
Alice Joy covers education for the Free Lance. She can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 336 or at aj**@fr***********.com.
