Shown are the students performing in “My Heart Says Go.” Opening night is Friday, Nov. 3. Shown are Jaylyn Allison, Scarlett Shaffer, Brandon Leeka, Raquel Brouwer, Allyssa Trollinger, Gavin Ott, Hunter Fittering, Jayden McLeod, DeeDee Polk, Gianna Srouder, Aubrey Harp, Emma Ferguson, Lilian House, Deaglan Gardner, Shannon Smith, Joel Montoya, Sam McIntyre, Abigail Fisher, Ryan Clark and Layla Barker. Photo by Lauren Zeugner.

By Lauren Zeugner
InkFreeNews

KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — For months now, high school students throughout Kosciusko County have been busy learning lines, creating sets and rehearsing scenes as they prepare their fall productions.

Warsaw Community High School students will be performing “My Heart Says Go,” written by Matthew Hawkins, founder and creative producer of the University of Notre Dame’s New Works Lab, and Notre Dame alum Jorge “Jay” Rivera-Herrans. WCHS is the first high school to perform the musical.

Melanie Morris, theater teacher, who is directing, saw the musical performed by the South Bend Civic Theater last spring.

“The production I saw, I was blown away,” she said.

The musical tells the story of Indigo, who realizes a career in medicine isn’t for him. He decides to pursue his dream for music, which creates conflict with his father.

“It handles some heavy topics in a sensitive and appropriate way for our students and community,” Morris said.

The message of the musical is about following your heart and how strong parental love is.

Hawkins has even dropped by to see a rehearsal and offer some pointers to the cast.

“They were very, very nervous. I was nervous. As a director, you never (get the chance to) meet the playwrite,” Morris said.

“Hawkins and Rivera-Herrans wanted high schools to perform the play,” Morris said. “They want to make theater accessible. Their idea is to skip Broadway and get to the community level.”

The cast of “My Heart Says Go” is made up of 20 students with a crew of 10. Morris said she kept the cast small due to the content of the show. She wanted the student actors to dig deep into their characters.

“With a large cast, that’s hard to do,” she explained.

She feels the kids involved in the musical have really matured and delved deeper into their characters.

Opening night is 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3. Performances are 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4 and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and adults and can be purchased online at warsawperformingarts.vbotickets.com/events.

Wawasee High School is rehearsing “The Play That Goes Wrong,” which is a comedy about a play within a play.

A cast of eight, civic theater actors are putting on a play, while everything around them goes wrong.

“It’s a murder mystery, and they’re trying to solve a murder and be serious about it, while everything around them falls apart,” explained WHS teacher Kristin Bonner, who is directing the play with Sarah LeCount.

Bonner saw the play in New York City.

“I had never laughed so hard,” she said.

She knew she wanted to bring the play to Wawasee, but wasn’t sure she could because the entire set literally falls apart and has to go back together.

“It’s a structural marvel,” she said, giving credit to physics teacher Dan Wray, who had help from Jim Cox, a friend of his.

“Even if you’re not a theater fan, it’s so funny because stuff keeps happening,” Bonner said. “It’s like every director’s nightmare.”

The basis of the play is a civic theater group is putting on a whodunit, while things go haywire with the props and the set. Along with the actors, members of the “stage crew” are also visible to the audience throughout the play.

The play has a cast of eight, a false crew of seven (those visible on stage) and an actual stage crew of eight students. Of the 23 students involved, Bonner noted 12 are seniors.

An added challenge is during rehearsals, Bonner suffered a stroke and LeCount had to take over directing until she could come back to work. Bonner said it was a tough time as she missed being with the kids, including her youngest daughter, Windsor, who is one of the cast members.

While there is a high school adaption for “The Play That Goes Wrong,” Bonner elected to go with an adult version for the comedy. Due to the amount of stage direction involved, she said the cast is exhausted by the end of the play.

Opening night is 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, with performances at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12.

Tickets are $10 for students and seniors and $12 for adults. Tickets may be purchased at [email protected].