Last year, junior Lena Flaherty, who is playing Rosie in this year’s Morgan Musical, Mamma Mia, was faced with an impossible situation. She was entering her second year of fencing, and was cast for a lead in the school musical, Curtains. After multiple scheduling conflicts, she was forced to decide between the two things she loves, fencing or the musical. She chose fencing.

“Last year, I received a lead role in the musical and had to quit a few days later because the director wouldn’t work around the fencing schedule,” Flaherty explained. But Flahery was not alone in this problem.

The musical cast, made up of 53 Morgan students, began rehearsals on Monday, December 16th. This year, Media Teacher Shannon Robinson stepped up to take the role of the director in the musical, along with Chorus teacher Leila Mustakos, who took on the role of Music Director.

Robinson has participated in over 75 Musicals in her whole life. Her favorite musicals have been “Once on This Island”, “Bright Star” and “Aida.” During her time at Morgan, she has had small roles in past musicals, a character with one or two lines, but this year decided to take it a step further and direct the musical. “Musicals are something I enjoy doing and they keep me busy outside of my teaching life.”

Last year several members of the fencing team were also affected by the scheduling issues.

However, this year, under new leadership, things have changed for the musical, opening up more opportunities for athletes to participate in the play.

When talking about differences from this year and last year, Flaherty said, “the schedule is super organized and the directors spend hours working on it to make sure the time slots are open to all of their winter athletes. I really appreciate how I can do both of my favorite things and I don’t have to pick and choose.”

Robinson has worked hard to shape a rehearsal around the multi talented students in her cast. She has created a google document organized into who should be at each rehearsal, what they will rehearse, and what time they will be meeting. Most rehearsals are right after school, and Robinson and Mustakos work hard to accommodate every sport.

“My biggest challenge has been dealing with the plethora of schedules just because sports time and stuff aren’t set in stone, either. So you have a cast of 50 people that you are trying to manipulate around all different sports, and when you are trying to revamp the schedule based on last minute notice, it becomes a challenge,” said Robinson.

Junior Austin Borkowski has been a part of the Morgan Musical since his freshman year, and enjoys singing and acting. Last year, Borkowski had to quit the musical due to the previous director not being willing to change the schedule to accommodate all sports.

“The musical this year has definitely been refreshing. It’s definitely a much better system from last. Mrs. Robinson and Mrs. Mustakos are very cooperative with everybody in the cast. They are also really good at sending reminders to everybody and making sure everything is running as planned,” Borkowski explained. “The whole cast is enthusiastic and excited to get back on the stage, and the show will be great.” Borkowski added, sharing his excitement to be working with new faces.

This year, Mustakos also stepped in to help Robinson run the musical as music director. “Mrs. Mustakos and I divided and conquered,” said Robinson. “She might work with a group of kids to learn lines and music, and I might take another group to learn a block of choreography.”

Mustakos splits time between Morgan and Eliot, so she has to make sure she can adjust her schedule well according to the musical. She teaches two chorus classes, one during B period and one during C period. This means she must be at Morgan during the beginning of the day, but go to Eliot for the end of the day. Then she must come back at the end of the day to be at Musical rehearsal.

“It’s difficult to balance between Eliot and Morgan because even though I’m only here for two-thirds of the day, and I’m in charge of the choral program. I wish I was here full-time because that’s a lot of responsibility,” Mustakos said. “But I do love my Eliot kids, and it’s nice to see the middle school kids and keep a relationship with them because they are going to be the ones in the choral program in the future.”

Mustakos was not involved in the Morgan musical last year, although has been a part of musicals in the past. “I was a musical theater director at several other schools. And I’ve really missed the creative outlet of musical theater, and I’m really excited to start doing it again,” Mustakos said.
Mamma Mia is a musical that follows the story of a mother trying to plan her daughter’s wedding while her daughter secretly plans to meet her real father and have him walk her down the aisle. It is rated 6.5/10 on IMDb and 55% on Rotten Tomatoes.

“We have a great enthusiastic group of kids working really hard, and I’m impressed how many of them have been able to balance athletics, academics, and the musical,” Mustakos shared.

The musical is filled with students who want to make this musical full of life and energy, so make sure you support the hard work everyone is putting into this performance on Friday March 21st, Saturday March 22nd and Sunday 23rd in The Morgan School auditorium.

The roles of the musical this year are

Leads:

Greek Chorus:

Chorus: