Share Suppertime, The Very Best Time of Day

In the musical “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” which North Sevier High School is presenting, Snoopy, played by Breeanna Lopshire, sings the praise of “Suppertime”, when she says, “Suppertime, very best time of day.”

Thinking about our own suppertimes, we all look forward to that time of day, not only for the physical feeling of filling the emptiness, but also the emotional comfort and relaxation that comes with it.

The directors and cast members of “Charlie Brown” would like to help families that don’t have enjoyable suppertimes because of the lack of food, by offering a free admission ticket to their musical play for anyone that brings a grocery bag of 10 or more canned or boxed food items to the show. These will be given to the county food bank to make the suppertimes of families in our area more pleasurable.

The musical performances will be on November 6, 7 and 8 at 7 p.m., at the North Sevier High School Auditorium, located at 350 west and 400 north, in Salina . The admission prices are adults $4.00 and children between the ages of 5 & 12, $3.00.

Now you can help those who may be hungry, and have a really great experience at the same time. We will be sharing additional information about the show and the cast members presenting it in next week’s paper. This is just a little notice to help you make earlier plans for joining in answering Snoopy’s question, “So, what’s wrong with making mealtime a joyous occasion?”

Charlie Brown

Snoopy

Lucy Van Pelt

Linus Van Pelt

Sally Brown

Schroeder

Freida

Violet Grey

Patricia Reichardt aka Peppermint Patty

Marcie

Shermy

Franklin

Pig Pen

Casting

Our original 23 cast members included: Taylor Shepherd as Charlie Brown, Kurlayna Holt as Lucy Van Pelt, Kyle Hunt as Linus Van Pelt, Breanna Lopshire as Snoopy, Christopher Crane as Schroeder, Chevia Gates as Sally, Buddie Ann Bastain as Fredia, MaKenna Larsen as Violet, Whitney Calton as Peppermint Patty, Chyna Stuart as Marcie, Marcus Palmer as Franklin, Patrick Hatch as Roy, Eric Lyman as Shermy, Mickey Hensen as Clarea, Logan Lambertson as Pig Pen, Conner Havey as 5, Josie Dispain as Woodstock and (the rest of the character names I made up) McKayla Horne as Sophie, AloraDee Aders as Heather, Audrey Aders as Julie, Kinzie Robins as Suzie, Courtney Bloomquist as Abby and Bree'L Bosshardt as Betsy.

We went along until the 17th of September with little committment. I was getting frustrated! I was only having practice on Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays, and felt that wasn't too much to ask. When I made out a committment contract on the 18th and asked the students and their parents to sign it, those that hadn't ever come, those that were only coming once in a while, and 2 with failing grades, quit. We lost 10.

Then some students were rearranged to other parts, some had the same parts, but had their names changed, so that everyone was then one of the real Peanuts characters.

Character line up then was: Christopher Crane as Charlie Brown, Kurlayna Holt as Lucy Van Pelt, Kyle Hunt as Linus Van Pelt, Breanna Lopshire as Snoopy, Patrick Hatch as Schroeder, Buddie Ann Bastain as Fredia, MaKenna Larsen as Sally, Whitney Calton as Peppermint Patty, Chyna Stuart as Marcie, Marcus Palmer as Franklin, Eric Lyman as Shermy, Logan Lambertson as Pig Pen, McKayla Horne as Violet.

These students have been a very committed team. Nobody thinks they are any better than anybody else, and they treat each other with respect and are a great help to each other. It has been an honor to work with them.

Call Backs

On Friday the 29th of August, I made a copy of the songs for call backs so the students could learn them over the long weekend. Call backs were held on Wednesday, September 3rd. There were 12 students that came, hoping for a lead part. [I considered the following parts as leads: Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Snoopy, Schroeder, Sally, because they were the 6 characters that the show was written for. So, they each had a solo song, and many speaking parts.]

The show that I was familiar with in 1990, was written for Patty instead of for Sally, but I decided to try the new 'revised' version, this time. After we had had the original auditions and had handed parts out for the call backs, my piano players complained of the difficulty of the music, so, I called the company and asked to exchange this version for the original version. By doing that it changed the show, especially the parts of Sally and Schroeder, but I went ahead with call backs as planned.

I arranged to give several lines and a solo part in a song to each one that was brave enough to want a lead part. The only ones that didn't have a solo were the ones that said they only wanted speaking parts. I was pretty happy about how evenly the parts were divided.

We had 23 students in all that tried out for a part and we decided that we would include everyone, therefore had 23 characters.

Auditions

Auditions were held on the 27th and 28th of August in the Auditorium at the high school. I made a handout that described the characters of the 'Peanuts Gang'. The things that each one had to do was:
1. Say a sentence of their choice with make-believe peanut butter in their mouth.
2. Say a paragraph of their choice with a paper bag on their head.
3. Show all of the emotions of flying a kite that they could.
4. Dramatize a paragraph of Snoopy's about dying from starvation because Charlie Brown had forgotten to feed him.
5. With a partner, portray each of the characters in each of 4 comic strips.
6. March to the beat of a song.
7. Dance up on the tallest box.
8. Dance with a make believe blanket.
9. Sing with the group (loud and on tune.)

We had 23 students that came to show their stuff on those 2 nights. Mrs. Seegmiller and my daughter, Jessica and I were the casting committee. We discussed each one and decided which we wanted to see back for call backs. Then we changed and decided that whoever wanted to be a lead, could learn a page of lines for the character of their choice and learn the song that went to that character.

Play selection

"You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" was selected in May when Mrs. Seegmiller asked me, if I would be interested in directing the musical again in the fall. She had some things in her life that she felt would prohibit her from doing it, and so she came to me.

At first I said, "No," because of the bad experience that I had last year of trying to keep a complete cast. As soon as we would draft students to fill the gaps, other gaps would appear. With a cast of about 45, I never did have a practice with more than 30 in attendance at any one time, including the dress rehearsals and we were relpacing 2 of the parts 2 days before opening night. Therefore, I was truly thinking, "No, thank you!"

But later, after thinking about it, I remembered this show. My older 2 children had been in it when they were in high school, and they had enjoyed it. It was in 1990, and at that time I was a 'stay-at-home-mom.' So, I made the costumes for my own children, Cameron who was Charlie Brown, and Rushel who was Peppermint Patty. Then when other mothers who were working, had a need for help, I ended up also making the costumes for Lucy, Sally, Pat and Sophie, along with the 9 oversized baseball caps and 5 oversized mitts. Cameron needed a little extra credit for his drama class, so he (and Rushel & I) made all of the props needed for the show, except the toy piano for Schroeder.

When I remembered this show, I thought to myself, "It is written for 6 characters, but Mr. Malan had added other Peanuts characters and divided up some of the speaking parts for them, I'm sure that I could do the same, and as students dropped out, I'd just cut their part and reassign the lines to others. We still had all of the props, and I'd round up the costumes that I could, and we'd repaint the boxes used for scenery, and anything else above and beyond that would be of my own choosing. It couldn't get any easier than that, and besides it is my youngest daughter, Kurlayna's senior year, and she should have a good experience."

So, I said "Yes, I'd do the musical," and then told her the idea that changed my mind.