My FIRST Musical Review: Pippin

Have you ever watched one of Bancroft’s musicals and thought, what if I should do the musical next year? and have been on the fence about it? Well, I’m here to tell you…DO IT! As a first-time ever being on stage, never been in a production, only ever sang in my shower, I absolutely LOVED it. I’m going to tell you about my experience with my first musical, Pippin, from an ensemble character, a featured dancer, and a dance captain. 

If you want to be a part of a musical, but you don’t want to have many lines, or sing any solo songs…ENSEMBLE IS FOR YOU! Especially in the show Pippin, the ensemble characters had quite a bit of air time. Many dance numbers and songs had all cast members in it which made it really comfortable for me especially to be open enough to sing and try new things with everyone else. In Pippin, our ensemble was in a BUNCH of dance numbers and had multiple different roles, like switching between characters in scenes and pulling platforms from in and out of the wings. I would say, this year as an ensemble was a lot of work since Pippin was a big ensemble show. But I truly don’t regret any of it. The new connections you make with the people in the ensemble are so pure and fun knowing you’re in the same boat. 

One of my favorite parts of the musical this year was being a featured dancer. A featured dancer is usually an ensemble character that is in more dance numbers with harder choreography. With my previous experience in gymnastics, the main reason I wanted to do the musical this year was to dance more than to sing. And with Pippin being a high dance musical, I thought it would be a great opportunity to try it out. Being cast as a featured dancer was SO MUCH FUN! I absolutely loved the choreography I was given. Lea, the other featured dancer, and I became such a great duo. Performing the choreography on stage was honestly so fun and I genuinely loved the thrill. Of course, I would have to practice more at home on choreography since I got more choreography than others, but I found it so enjoyable learning it and practicing it that it didn’t feel like a burden.

Another role I was so gratefully granted this year was being dance captain. A dance captain is usually an ensemble character who is given the responsibility to help other cast members out with their choreography and can give tips on helping them. This took some more time and effort with teaching others new choreography if they missed a rehearsal or if they needed extra practice with it. These would be co-labs during the day or right before rehearsal started. This of course is more of a leadership role that did take a bunch of organizational skills and initiative. The dance captain experience has shown me how to be a leader in a different lens than I’m usually comfortable with. 

If you’re considering doing the musical next year, 100% do it. It’s an experience that you can’t get anywhere else. Mr. Sheldon is right when he says “We don’t do high school theater, we do theater.” 

Photo by Gwen King on Unsplash