With only a few short weeks of rehearsal until opening night, Homestead’s music and drama departments are working feverishly to mount their rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s beloved musical Carousel. Between cast, crew, and pit orchestra, Carousel is truly a group effort, with over 100 students involved.
So come one, come all, and meet the incredible artists who have created the production!
Sydneye Olkowski
It takes a passionate person to willingly volunteer for a stressful, time-consuming, and difficult job, but Sydneye Olkowski, senior, is one of these incredible people. Assistant directing since junior year, Carousel is Olkowski’s fifth show.
When asked to sum up the production in one word, “demanding” seems to fit since “the sets can be elaborate or simplistic but have to be overall effective while the costumes switch between a span of twenty years. For the actors, they are demanded to take the viewers from bellows of laughter to the deafness of silence within mere seconds,” Olkowski explains. “Throughout all the singing and dancing the performers must still remind the audience of the looming domestic violence developing between the main couples of the musical.”
At this point Olkowski notes that thus far “anything and everything technical” has been the greatest challenge, but “being able to guide the process along and work on every aspect of it too” is the ultimate reward.
With opening night only weeks away, Olkowski is most looking forward to the audiences reaction during the prologue scene. “The carousel is brought onto stage and I believe it will be a breathtaking stage picture to see especially from my seat up in the booth” Olkowski said.
All in all, Olkowski expressed that “It is a wonderful show and I personally have grown to like it. It is humorous, intriguing, and touching. All I can say is that Rodgers and Hammerstein knew how to make a great musical.”
By: Katie Bandurski
Drama Club Publicist
Senior-2014
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