Have you ever found yourself having to be in two places at one time?
Well, for five students at De Pere High School, being in two places at once is their job.
In this year’s musical, Grease, there are five leading female roles and five leading male roles. Outside of the leads, almost every other character in the show is unnamed. Through the plethora of talented girls that auditioned this year, it was difficult to decide who makes the cut and who doesn’t.
To fix this problem, Redbird Productions introduced understudies, and five girls – Stella Krukowski, Claire Friend, Annabel Willmott, Kyla Bushey, and Lucy Rogers – all prepare every day after school to take on the leading female roles in the show.
“Having to juggle both was definitely a new kind of challenge because I had to make up a lot of stuff that I missed from having to be in two places at once,” said Willmott, the understudy for Frenchy, a role cast to Jackie Cummings. “It’s more stressful, but in the same way, it’s really good for my brain to like, learn how to do that all.”
This year’s Redbird Productions’ understudies rehearse the lines of a female lead role just in case the lead is absent. In other words, they’re a member of the ensemble unless their lead is gone.
When asked what their initial thoughts were when finding out they were an understudy, they expressed their excitement and surprise.
Friend, the understudy for Marty, stated, “We’ve never had understudies before, so I was surprised overall, and then they sent us this letter talking about what an understudies role was and why we were cast as an understudy. That kind of made me feel better about it.”
Kyla Bushey, the understudy for Jan, says she was honored to be cast as an understudy.
“It made me realize I had stuff to work on, which is not a bad thing at all,” she said. “Nobody’s perfect. But, it also made me realize, like, that could’ve been me. I have the talent for it.”
Krukowski, the understudy for Sandy, said she is enjoying the rehearsal process.
“I get to actually advance my acting skills being an understudy and also doing the ensemble stuff,” she said. “I just think it’s so much more fun and diverse from past experiences.
“I love working with my lead and having fun with the other understudies and we’ve really grown connections over the past few weeks. It’s just so cool seeing when the leads do it vs when we do it and seeing the similarities and differences between both of our performances.”
However, having the role of an understudy can get overwhelming and stressful. Being burdened with both the responsibility of learning an ensemble part and a lead role requires lots of work.
“It has been somewhat difficult to juggle just because of the responsibility of basically learning the entire show because you learn the lead’s part and also the ensemble part that they’re not in,” says Friend.
Additionally, rehearsal can often be unclear for the understudies. Most stated that they are not always completely sure where they are supposed to be and when between the two responsibilities.
“It’s a little stressful because we never know what we have to figure out ourselves because we kind of just get thrown around everywhere,” explained Willmott. “I don’t always know where to be, especially when there’s two different places, one where my ensemble character is supposed to be and one with the person I’m understudying for is supposed to be. Having to go back and forth and kind of figure that out is different than what I’m used to.”
It can also be frustrating to go through all the rigor of practicing, especially because all of the work for being an understudy may not pay off.
“I put the effort into learning it all, but don’t get to perform it on stage,” mentions Friend.
Overall, although the understudies deal with some stress during the rehearsal process, they are all excited for what’s to come and to use their acting skills in the future.
“The high is definitely getting the experience,” Bushey says. “Getting better at things I wasn’t as good at, especially in the musical aspect.”
The understudies will be in action from Thursday, Nov. 13 to Saturday, Nov. 15, whether they are playing a lead role or are a part of the ensemble.
