John Hanson Community School was transported to a fantastical world where anything’s possible when the hall was transformed into the colourful Jungle of Nool and the tiniest planet of Who as the school presented its production of Seussical the Musical.
Local audiences, including children from John Hanson’s feeder schools who made up the audience for the dress rehearsal, were thrilled by the well-known characters such as The Cat in the Hat, Horton the Elephant and Gertrude McFuzz from the highly imaginative books by Dr Seuss.
The students had spent the three months before the show rehearsing, showing real dedication to their art as they came in for many Sundays throughout January and February.
Alize Bates, a Year 7 student who played the main character of Jo-Jo said “It’s refreshing to think that everyone is given a chance from Year 7-11 and I was immensely proud to take part and represent the school.”
The play, which is an entirely sung through performance and debuted on Broadway in 2000, contains many show stopping numbers, such as ‘The Thinks You Can Think!’ and ‘Alone in the Universe’, using famous quotes from Dr Seuss.
“This is a demanding musical but we knew we had very talented students who would rise to the challenge and our instrumentalist have learned a lot from the professional musicians that they played alongside in the band” said Mr Gooding, Head of Music and Musical Director and producer of the show.
As this year’s musical was sung throughout, it featured more of the students’ dance skills, with some complex choreography from Head of Dance, Donna Vokes.
Kate O’Gorman, director of the production and Head of Drama said “The performers were really put through their paces as they had to sing, dance and act.”
“Everyone put their heart and soul into it, from the performers, the technicians, the props makers and musicians to achieve an exceptionally high standard performance. It was the perfect way to showcase the variety of excellence in the four arts subjects taught at the school – Drama, Music, Dance and Art.”
The professional standards were appreciated very much by a sell-out audience, with one young person reporting “I loved it so much, I wanted to join in!”
