A local middle school without a drama program is presenting: HONK! Jr.: The Musical – with a little help from Park Scholars.
The Centennial Campus Middle School drama program is now a reality. Founded in 2004 by Remi Loiseau, who graduated in 2007, Curtain Call was established to provide area middle schools without drama departments the necessary funding and skills to produce musicals each year, according to program records.
Directed by DeShawn Brown, a freshman in general engineering, this year’s musical tells the story of an ugly duckling and his life in the duck yard. The show will be Thursday, Nov. 18 and Friday, Nov. 19 at 7:00 p.m. at Centennial Campus Middle School. Tickets are $5, and all proceeds go directly back to the drama program.
There are expected to be between 400 and 500 attendees at this year’s performances.
For Brown, this was the perfect opportunity for him to combine two of his passions: drama and service.
“In high school, I had a lot of theater background,” Brown said. “After hearing about Curtain Call and how important it was to the kids, I jumped right in.”
This year’s production was met with a significant hardship before rehearsals began, as the entire leadership vacated their positions, creating a vacuum at the top. This gave Brown the opportunity to take over the direction of the program as a freshman.
According to Brown, this year’s leadership team is composed of eight N.C. State students. The team is completely student-led, and they receive assistance from music instructors at the middle school.
Co-directing this year’s production is Ryan Collinsworth, a junior in psychology.
For Collinsworth, the program is much more complex than a simple opportunity for the children to have fun after school.
“With our society’s preference toward education in the sciences, math, and technology, the arts and humanities suffer,” Collinsworth said. “It has been very meaningful to me to expos the students to drama and music.”
Collinsworth said he thinks Curtain Call provides students with a great outlet of self-expression in a comfortable zone.
“There are certain social rules and pressures to fit in that prevent kids from expressing themselves, and I feel like Curtain Call provides kids a vital opportunity to explore their own creativity,” he said.
According to Brown, the program exists for the benefit of the students.
“[The children] get the opportunity to learn about the arts, have fun, work together, and bond as a group,” Brown said. “They can just forget about everything else in the world, and get on stage and be free.”
The most fulfilling part of his involvement in the program has been exposing children to drama who otherwise may go without that experience, Collinsworth said.
“Who knows? Maybe there is a student in this production who will one day star on Broadway, but without Curtain Call, would have had no exposure to drama,” Collinsworth said.
