RHS Gears Up for 'Oklahoma'

The cast and crew of Ridgefield High School's spring musical, "Oklahoma," are midway through "hell week," the week before opening night when there are no nights off from rehearsing.

On Monday and Tuesday, the cast practiced in full makeup but without costumes as sound folks moved throughout tweaking their systems and director Joyce Flanagan shouted stage directions from her spot in the house. For Flanagan, the singing and dancing before her was a vision from last summer made manifest.

"I sit in here and I visualize how we could do this on the stage," said Flanagan, whom the students call "Flan" and who has been directing the show since 1999. "I try to pick a show where there are a lot of leads in it."

Three of the leads she watched move through their opening paces on Monday night were Ryan Duncan, Stephen Mark and Caroline Nesbit, all seniors. They play, respectively, Jud Fry, Curly McLain and Laurey Williams.

"I play a typical leading male," said Mark, who won best actor in the first National High School Musical Theater Awards last year for his role in "Thoroughly Modern Millie."

Mark said he enjoys musical theater's combined use of speech, song and dance to tell the story, which he described as "creating a person who needs to sing to tell you what he wants to say."

Before the run-through began and Mark loped onstage belting "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'," he and Nesbit rehearsed some of their choreography in an auditorium aisle. Nesbit wore overalls to play Laurey, the proud, fiery farm girl.

"Music and theater have been my life since kindergarten," said Nesbit, who added that she plans to study animal behavior alongside music in college. She looked calm and upbeat as she spoke, even though it was more than 12 hours into her day and two months into the "Oklahoma" production schedule.

"First day back from break, we're right into rehearsal," she said.

The show will be on March 12, 13, 19, and 20 in the Ridgefield High School auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10.