Oakmont students perform in Newsies at the Mount 

What is it like to perform in a show?

By Julia Feeley

Theater at the Mount in Gardner performed the show Newsies Jr, in April 2023, sponsored by Theater at the Mount itself, which had produced over 300 shows in its 46 years of running. Newsies Jr. is a show about the New York City newsboy strike of 1899.  

Three Oakmont students participated in the show. Julia Feeley as Katherine Plumber; Amanda Buszkiewicz as Scab numbers 2 and 3; and Ryan Rollo as Race. Also, a cool fun fact Mr. Lizotte’s daughter, Haily, was cast as Hanna, one of Pulitzer’s workers. 

Plot

Jack Kelly is just a normal newsie, with dreams of going to Santa Fe and being an artist. He spends his days selling papers with his friend Crutchie and other newsboys. But when Joseph Pulitzer decides to raise the price of newspapers, he’s left to organize a strike. The strike doesn’t work out as well as he hoped, and Crutchie is captured by the cops. But with the help of his friends, Katherine, a young aspiring woman reporter; Davey, a new newsie who is trying to help his family; Les, they rally the newsies and save Crutchie.

By the end of the show, the price of papers is reduced by half, and the newsies are able to keep on selling newspapers, while Jack goes to work for The World newspaper with Katherine, as a professional cartoonist. With funny dialogue and exciting songs, this is a show you want to watch, the cast of Newsies Jr. performed for various elementary schools.

 The (Our) Experience

The show didn’t just come together overnight though. After some auditions in January, the cast started rehearsing. The cast was made of students from local schools and all grades, ranging from first grade to twelfth. We also had our wonderful director, choreographer and music director, Emily Smith Brian Landgren and Katrina Baer who helped pull the whole show together. The first rehearsal took place . . . They started off slow with learning the music and dances. The first rehearsals were long and tedious. The people with a lot of lines had to work on remembering them. The first couple of days it was hard to make friends because some people already knew each other. But after a few more rehearsals the cast hit it off, and everyone became fast friends. 

 The first few weeks didn’t just feel slow, it felt like no progress was being made and that we were doing the same thing every day. The little kids had trouble staying in their seats, and they would jump around at any chance they got. As they progressed and got closer to the show days, it felt like a hot mess as they moved their show to the stage. Spacing was all messed up and people were having trouble with their lines.  Ten or twelve elementary school kids always ran around with our mascot stuffed animal frog, Leo. Everyone started to get nervous as the show days came closer. The leads had to study hard to get their lines memorized as they reached the home stretch. Finally, after a long time of waiting, everyone got their costumes. The fun colors and different styles excited the cast for the show. 

 When the first show came, everyone was ready. It went wonderfully, and everyone was happy with their performance. They all went home and prepared for a long week. The shows went great, with only minor issues that no one in the audience even noticed. Finally, it was the dreaded last day. There were two shows on that day. The first one of that day went well but the second show was amazing. Everyone thought that the last show had been their best. But sadly, now it was over. With many tears and hugs, the cast said goodbye and hung up their costumes for the last time.