Cast of Annie Get Your Gun Gets Ready for Opening Night
Cast of Annie Gets Your Gun
Opening night is on Thursday, November 12th and the cast of Annie Get Your Gun has been working hard for over two months to finally bring their story to life on stage.
Annie Get Your Gun is based on a true story. It takes place in the late 1800’s when Annie Oakley joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. It follows Annie on her adventure and her rollercoaster romance with Frank Butler.
“I play Annie Oakley! One of my favorite parts about playing Annie is the fact that she is not afraid to say what she thinks, which is something I wish I could do. She’s very bold yet unassuming and overall she’s just a lot of fun to portray,” Junior Hannah Miller said.
Annie Get Your Gun is full of big characters with even bigger personalities. The best example is definitely Annie Oakley. She comes from a poor background where her only source of money comes from selling birds that she had shot. She was discovered by Foster Wilson and because of her impressive marksman ability she was recruited to the notorious Wild West Show run by Buffalo Bill. Buffalo Bill is played by Senior Dallin Garner.
“I play as Buffalo Bill, the owner and founder of the show. What I love about his character is that he is larger than life. Everything about him is big. And for those who come to see the show, his mustache is also a factor,” Garner said.
To put together a musical requires a lot of work and a lot of time. You have to get all the moving pieces working together just right. There’s the tech, the orchestra, the scene changes, the costumes, the dancing, and the singing.
“Rehearsals start with blocking, which is a fancy term for the director telling the actors where to move during a scene. Rehearsals for this musical ranged from one to two hours. After we’ve blocked the entirety of the musical, we start running through it. We have memorization tests throughout our rehearsals to ensure that we know our lines, so we can practice without our scripts. Towards the end of rehearsing, we have full dress rehearsals. Dress rehearsals are where we run the entire show with costume changes, makeup, and microphones,” Garner said.
As the cast gets closer to opening night, the tensions are high. After months of hard work, an audience will finally be there to see all their hard work. With the conditions this year the cast is grateful to be performing for an audience at all.
“I’m super excited for opening night! One of the best parts of performing is the ability to do it for a live audience, so I am very excited for that. I am nervous, though…knowing that any mistakes I make could mess up the flow of the show, or mess somebody else up is a lot of pressure. Another big part of performing is being able to go with the flow and think on your feet. So yeah, I can’t wait for opening night,” Miller said.
