In the rich history of Tyrone Area School District\u2019s music and drama program, the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has never been performed. All that is about to change with the upcoming auditions for the musical which are scheduled to be held Monday, February 10 and Tuesday, February 11 at 6 p.m. in the high school auditorium. Students in grades six through twelve are welcome to audition. Anyone interested should fill out an application located in M-1 in the music suite at the high school and have a song ready to perform for auditions that showcases their vocal ability.
\n\u201cIt was originally written for a church pageant and ran about 20 minutes,\u201d said Cathy Young, TASD teacher and musical director and producer of the production. \u201cOver the years it\u2019s just gotten bigger and bigger, and now it\u2019s a huge show.\u201d
\nThe lyrics to the musical were written by Tim Rice, and the music was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. This famous duo also wrote such productions as Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita. The musical consists of two acts, a cast of 17 men, one narrator, one woman, a chorus, 17 songs and instrumentation.
\n\u201cWe have a lot of really good kids we could feature in this musical,\u201d added Young. \u201cYou look to see what would fit these kids. I can\u2019t pick a musical and fit them into it. It doesn\u2019t work that way. It seems like we have a lot of good guys and a great chorus.\u201d
\nThe plot of the musical is taken from a biblical story. Joseph is the favorite son in the family, and his brothers get jealous of him when their father gives Joseph a coat of many colors. The brothers sell Joseph into slavery in Egypt. However, he has the gift of interpreting dreams, so Joseph helps to save the country and comes into favor with the Pharaoh. He is reunited with his estranged brothers at the end.
\nIn larger productions of the play, Michael Damian has starred in a Broadway version in New York City, and Donny Osmond played in the movie version.
\n\u201cPractice will have to start right away. Then it\u2019s everyday until the kids learn the music,\u201d said Young of what happens after auditions. \u201cKaren Volpe, a person who works with the Altoona Community Theater and works for the Blair County Arts Foundation, is the person who blocks it all out. Reverend Kim MacGuiness-Green is new to the area and is the new drama advisor at the school and Ed Kuhstos is also helping out.\u201d
\nArt teacher Mr. Stuck will build the sets, and art teachers Mr. Feather and Ms. Ferrari will also help with art designs for the production.
\nThere are no speaking parts in the musical; the story is being told through songs. The audience will need to follow along from one song to the next to be able to figure out what is going on. This adds a unique feature to the student production.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s all styles of music from reggae, to calypso, a disco scene and a cowboy song. It\u2019s not just musical Broadway songs,\u201d said Young.
\nThe musical is scheduled to be performed in the high school auditorium on April 25-26.
\n\u201cTyrone has a huge tradition of musicals. It\u2019s a way to get the kids involved in drama, and anybody that wants to get on stage gets to do it. It\u2019s a really fun show too, and I\u2019m really looking forward to working with the kids on it,\u201d said Young.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the rich history of Tyrone Area School District\u2019s music and drama program, the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has never been performed. All that is about to change with the upcoming auditions for the musical which are scheduled to be held Monday, February 10 and Tuesday, February 11 at 6 p.m. in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}