It is that time of year again, the spring production. The Performing and Visual Arts Academy have started rehearsing for their spring musical of Disney’s princess story, Mulan. Opening night of the play will be on Friday, April 17, 2015 at 7 p.m. and the production will run through Saturday, April 25th with a final 7 p.m. performance.

The stars of the show are Darian Ramirez (12) as Mulan and Adam Punzalan (12) as Shayn. Mr. Weiss has been working hard with his crew to bring this play to the school and community. When asked about his expectation of the show he said, “It’s going to be a great show and the dancing will be great.”  One supposes he does not want to give anything away yet. We asked Xavier Escobar (12), who plays Ling, what expectations does he have for the musical and he said, “It’s a pretty simple and straightforward musical, unlike Beauty and the Beast, but it’s definitely going to end up being great.” He continued saying this show will be unique because the sets will be different and the script is also an adaptation which Mr. Weiss wrote himself.

The plays at school feature large audiences, and as expected, the students in the play get nervous. The star Mulan, Darian Ramirez, has been in previous plays at school and she still feels the anxiety that, “…takes me out of my comfort zone,” yet she continues “…having fun and making a lot of friends,” during their rehearsals. The amount of effort and enthusiasm is definitely shown through the hard work everyone puts into the show.

The cast members invest much of their time into the production to make it the best that it can be. The choreographer of the play, Matt Musgrove (an assistant to Mr. Weiss) says, “With the amount of work we do as a group, we have positive attitudes towards this because we have a lot of fun, and if we have fun so will the audience.” It is clear that the cast and crew want to bring joy to everyone involved, whether that be being part of the play or simply watching it.