On March 9th through the 11th the Erie High theater department showed yet another musical titled, ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.’ 

Based on a book made in 1952, the 1961 satirical musical which centers around the 1960’s workplace, is about an ambitious window washer that, with the help of the book, ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’, rises to be chairman of a worldwide company. Scott Wright, the drama teacher at Erie states, “it was brand new to them [the students], so there’s some excitement with that, and we kind of just wanted to shake things up a bit.”

To put on a show like this, preparation starts a year or even a year and a half in advance of when the show is even announced, “So, next year, as in 2024’s musical has already been chosen and [we are] already starting to work on it,” Wright comments. Because preparations start so much in advance, there are numerous duties and projects to do for people backstage and for the actors and actresses. For example, setting up blocking, staging, making props, learning choreography, rehearsing, etc.

With this many tasks on the to-do list, there are a lot of jobs to go with them. Miranda Wood, a senior at Erie as well as the stage manager sits in on rehearsals and writes down all the blocking to make sure everything is on track, along with creating the rehearsal schedules. Mj Jackson, a sophomore, is technical director and shop foreman, who says, “I’m building the sets and managing what can be put on stage.. and for tech director that just means I’m largely in charge of the vast majority of our hands.” 

While the backstage crew works hard on making sure everything runs smoothly, the actors are busy learning the choreography, their lines, and rehearsing to bring this musical to life. Saylor Russ, a Senior at Erie plays the female lead, Rosemary, who is a secretary in the musical and the main love interest of the lead character, Mr.Finch. She reflects, “I practice a lot outside of school, and I go over it- dance numbers in specific, with people who are also in it, and I make Quizlets to help me learn my lines.” 

Although there are a lot of people working on this show the theater department community of Erie is extremely close knit, Wood mentions, “everyone really gets along and we’re not super similar, but we all get along really well together which is nice.” Jackson agrees, saying “a lot of ideas bouncing off of each other and it’s a nice creative, safe environment.” 

With the end of the school year just around the corner, the cast and crew of Erie High School’s spring performance: ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’ was delighted to share their most current work with the rest of the school, and anyone else who would like to watch.