The 2024 Upper School Musical’s “Into the Woods” cast comprises 45 students, the largest Upper School cast the MFS theater department has seen since 2019. This unprecedented cast size brought the theater program fresh excitement surrounding performing arts at MFS and new outreach to community members following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Middle and Upper School Choir Director Steve Weber said he was thrilled to see an increase in theater participation after the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which limited the Upper School musical performances with mask mandates and other precautionary health practices and lowered audience attendance.
“We were down in numbers a couple years ago because of COVID-19, and we couldn’t do too many things which discouraged people from joining,” Weber said. “Now, to see the numbers coming back up really high again this year, it makes me happy to see so many people involved.”
With a much larger cast than previous years, MFS Theater Director Holli Kitching is pleased to see new student interest and involvement in MFS theater productions.
Kitching said, “I always want more people to be involved in the performing arts, and we have a lot of returning and new people this year. Some people have never done a show before, so it’s really fun to introduce people to theater.”
Actor Jenavi Martinez ’25 agreed with Kitching.
“I think it’s really great to see so many younger actors,” Martinez said. “They bring a lot of good energy, and they all really want to be there performing, which I like.”
As underclassmen compose the majority of the large cast, actress Morgan Krasner ’27 noted that “it can be harder to have a bigger cast because [rehearsals] can feel less productive. Because the freshmen have filled up almost half of our cast members, it can feel a little harder to rehearse, because they are new to the ways of running Upper School productions.”
Soundboard operator Harrison Kutalek ’26 described his tech crew duties to be “significantly more difficult with a bigger cast, because there are two times more microphones to manage than in previous years.” Still, Kutalek feels he is “managing nonetheless and it’s going well.”
Additionally, Krasner mentioned the cast has been forced to adapt due to the large number of actors by splitting up rehearsal times and the learning process into small groups.
“It’s harder to teach [dance] numbers because not everyone can show up to every rehearsal because of other extracurricular activities [they] have to attend,” Krasner said. “Things are more scattered in our way of teaching and aren’t as condensed as they used to be, but either way, we have figured out a way to piece everything together with the larger cast.”
Weber noted the different styles of musical numbers in “Into the Woods” compared to other musicals, which has also forced a shift in teaching numbers to small groups rather than the full cast.
“This show has more solos than you would typically see in a musical, causing many people to learn a lot of extra things they normally wouldn’t have to in separate rehearsals,” said Weber. “This musical is a little bit different than most, [as] the full cast don’t do a lot of things [on stage] at the same time like lots of other shows. A lot of it is individual or small groups instead of being a full group on stage.”
Participating in MFS musicals since Middle School, Noah Frizell ’25 said he sees future potential for the next MFS theater productions in the coming years with the increase of interest in the performing arts.
“It’s wonderful seeing all the people from lower grades join. Seeing all the underclassmen join really gives me hope about what the musical can become in the future,” Frizell said.
“Into the Woods” will run on the evening of Friday, November 15 and Saturday, November 16, concluding on Sunday, November 17 with a matinee performance.
