A spectacle of musical theater and live performance is coming to South. Sounds of South, featuring advanced choir students, is putting on The Phantom of the Opera.
Gwen Witten-Upchurch, the choral director at South, thinks that the show is coming along fantastically. With how many talented students she directs in Sounds of South, it is a question of how she went about casting the production.
“You cannot do Phantom unless you have incredible people for all of the roles and an incredible chorus…and we had those singers.”
Witten-Upchurch said her favorite part of directing the show is that “the students are so engaged and they love it so much, and I feel like they have really poured themselves into all the work that is taking place…we have Ethan, and we have Emma, and all the students, and we have Ken, and everybody is just stepping up.”
This costly show is an impressive production to pull off, including the high prices that come along with this show. “The last time we did the chandelier, we had to pay $10,000 to rent it…[now] we could get the chandelier for a 16th of that price…a lot cheaper than what we paid before…My son, Ethan, is just totally obsessed with the staging and lighting and the directing of the show, so we thought we could do it, and we can.”
The cast of this production is getting excited for shows to start. Junior Willow Perry, who is double casted as the Phantom, said “Phantom [of the Opera] right now is in a better state than most other shows you’ll see, and we’re still a month away from shows so I think things are really going well.” Perry is a junior and has been in Sounds of South since his freshman year.
Josh Sang, who will also be performing as the Phantom, expressed his feelings on how quickly the shows are coming up as well, saying that “some nerves are kicking in a little bit…but it’s going pretty good, I feel like everybody knows their part. It’s going pretty smoothly.” Sang is a senior and has been a part of Sounds of South all of his four years of high school.
With this production being such an intense show, it is a question of how the actors get into character and pull off the production. The Phantom of the Opera is not only a spectacle of singing and music, it also has challenging acting and dancing.
Senior Hayden Miller, who is double casted as Raol, described how he gets into character and said, “I stand by myself and…just think about Raol. Hayden’s gone, it’s just me. I also don’t talk to anyone.” Miller has been in Sounds of South since his freshman year.
Similarly, Nolan Lee described how he gets into character as Raol, saying, “I can’t talk to my friends. I have to make sure I can focus so the best way to do that is to not talk to the people that I have to see on stage.” Lee is a senior and he is a three year member of Sounds of South.
Silvia Walker, who plays Christine, focuses on getting into costume and doing her hair and makeup to get into character, saying “I think that honestly helps me…to kind of transform into a different person and focus on just being someone else.”
Norah Stauffer, also playing Christine, agrees with her, as she said, “I get ready and do my hair and then I feel more like the character, and, when I’m in costume, I just feel ready and in the zone to perform.”
Witten-Upchurch said, “I think the audience is really going to be surprised by the caliber of talent, because the music is so difficult…and the students just do a beautiful job…it’s just stunning.”
Witten-Upchurch did the show 11 years ago with Sounds of South and, when asked why she would go about redoing the production, she said, “I love the show…there are only a few really, really amazing shows that I feel fit our group because of the subject matter, vocal standard, the use of chorus, and because I want to make sure whatever we do, students get as much opportunity as possible.”
