In November, the drama department began auditions for the upcoming debut of the spring musical, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”. Actors are now in rehearsal for the musical, scheduled to hit the stage April 24, 25 and 26.

Before the musical was even chosen, about 60-70 aspiring actors auditioned for unspecified, general roles in the spring musical, regardless of the undetermined play. “We auditioned talent first and had about four [plays] in mind and based on the talent we had, we selected one of the options,” said Cambria Beilstein, drama teacher.

The first audition, held in November, was an open call where everyone showed up and sang 16 bars. A few months later, actors had callbacks for specific roles. Following this, each actor had a dance audition, singing audition and an acting audition for the directors.

“During the acting callbacks, we were given part of the script which they want you to create a character out of. Then you basically performed that part for the character and the directors base their decision on how well the actors can perceive that character,” said David Dismay, playing J. Pierrepont Finch.

Of the 60-70 actors who auditioned, only 39 were casted.

“We have a really active, really talented department here and casting is always difficult, especially in choosing the girls. There were close to 50 girls who auditioned and we only had like 20 girls make it,” said Beilstein.

At this point, the actors have gone through four weeks of rehearsal and will continue to prepare four times a week, up until the show in April.

“[Currently] they are going through three different types of rehearsals. So they’ve got acting rehearsals with me and then they do vocal rehearsals with De La Cruz and then they have choreography rehearsals with our choreographer,” said Beilstein.

The actors are working to make the most of their crucial rehearsal time before the curtain rises.

“The nice thing is that once you get into the rehearsal process and run things over and over again, it really gets locked into your brain,” said David Dismay.

The actors are optimistic about the production, and are ambitious regarding rehearsals. “It feels so awesome to be a part of this production! It’s been a great experience working with Ms. B and I am so excited to be a lead role and I can’t wait to see the finished product,” said Tessa Englesman, playing Rosemary Pilkington.