The curtain opened on Friday Feb. 15 for the first ever performance of “Crazy For You” presented by the West Fargo High School theater department. Laughter and entertainment built from the first scene, but what the audience doesn’t see, is the hard work and obstacles that are endured in the process of constructing the show.
“Going in to our final week, the storm put a giant burden on us,” director Adam Pankow said. “Normally we have three or four dress rehearsals and we ended up only having two because the storm cancelled one, so that’s a big challenge with it.”
Along with the storm presenting a challenge, illnesses also played a large role in the productivity of rehearsal as they neared opening night. The show also faced a shortage on tech volunteers, which resulted in extra help by other members involved.
“Due to the smaller crew, which is still fairly large, there’s just more for the backstage members to do,” stage manager Amy Leopold said. “Also, certain cast members have to be more involved in moving set pieces on and offstage. Our cowboys do a lot of muscle work, but some of the principals who are only in certain scenes also help out a lot.”
Approaching the last few weeks of rehearsal before opening night, another situation caused a road block. A piece of set work fell on two of the cast members causing injury to both girls, junior Abby Derrig and senior Mariah Stein, who both played follies in the play. Although it was a setback and there was a nerve wracking possibility at first that they could not perform, both girls still performed on opening night.
“Of course I was upset, thinking that I have been working so hard for the past three months, and it’s all gone now. I was mostly thinking though about my male partners and the follie girls, because we were a family and if I was not able to perform I was not only letting myself down but also my family,” Derrig said.
Although most of the complications came about during the final stretch of rehearsals, every show undergoes its own type of obstacles and to have everyone together to overcome these challenges is what can sometimes produce the strongest of shows.
“Getting everybody together on that same page is sometimes a frustrating process,” Pankow said. “But sometimes it is so lovely and it makes you just realize why we do it.”