Last
night, I got invited by a neighbor at the last minute who had an extra ticket
to go see the production of "Mamma Mia!" at Roosevelt. I was smiling
under my mask for three hours straight in the audience, and it was so much fun
to see our neighbor's daughter dance the night away on stage and another
neighbor's son as part of the ensemble (who was one of the football players who
was recruited to be a part of the cast). This story below from The Seattle Times is going to make your
day.
At Seattle’s Roosevelt High School, football players join this year’s
musical
March
3, 2022 at 6:00 am Updated March 3, 2022 at 10:48 am
Roosevelt
High School students perform at the dress rehearsal for “Mamma Mia!” on Monday.
This year’s cast features 10 members of the school’s football team. (Ken
Lambert / The Seattle Times)
By
Seattle
Times arts critic
Sometimes,
it’s the unexpected things that unite us, that make us see past our differences
and focus on some shared joy. At Seattle’s Roosevelt High School this month,
it’s the ABBA musical “Mamma Mia!,” which marks the school’s acclaimed drama
department’s first onstage production in two years — and features, among its
cast, 10 members of the school’s football team.
It’s
not typical, to say the least, for football players and theater kids to team up
to sing some ‘70s disco-pop. (Outside of “Glee,” anyway.) But “Mamma Mia!” director
Katie Greve, who runs the school’s theater and dance department with Ben
Stuart, said it was an idea that came out of necessity: Not enough boys tried
out for the show, which requires a large male chorus.
Rasa
Yaghmaie, a captain on Roosevelt High School’s football team, plays Bill in
Roosevelt’s production of “Mamma Mia!” “I always knew I could sing a little,”
Yaghmaie said, “but I never really tried... (Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times)
Greve
had thought in the past about how the school was, like many high schools,
“really kind of separated by cliques,” she said on the phone last week. Why not
solve a casting problem by mingling two worlds? An invitation was extended to the
football team, after consultation with the coach — and enthusiastically
accepted. “All the guys who came [to audition] wanted to be in it!” Greve said.
She didn’t have room in the cast for all 30 or so who tried out, but narrowed
it down to 10 after a second round of auditions.
“I
thought it was a great idea” to blend the two groups, said senior Rasa
Yaghmaie, one of the football team captains, at Roosevelt’s auditorium Monday
afternoon. Though he’d never been in a musical before, he remembered his older
sister having good experiences doing Roosevelt shows. Turns out he’s a natural;
after auditions, he was cast in one of the lead roles, as Bill, one of the
three potential dads of bride Sophie, whose Greek island wedding is the show’s
focal point. “I always knew I could sing a little,” he said, “but I never
really tried before.”
“He’s
an amazing actor!” chimed in Eloise Maguire, who plays mother of the bride,
Donna (aka the Meryl Streep character in the movie). Maguire’s a
senior who was rehearsing Roosevelt’s spring production of “High School
Musical” in 2020 when it had to be canceled due to the pandemic; it’s been, she
said, a very long two years.
Roosevelt
High School senior Eloise Maguire, front, performs as Donna at the dress
rehearsal for “Mamma Mia!” (Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times)
At
Monday’s run-through, things seemed happily chaotic, exacerbated by the fact
that the cast had just had a full week off due to winter break. “Why is
everything going wrong?” a student asked, of nobody in particular,
as she hurried across the stage before the rehearsal began. Costumed students,
head mics fitted, gathered in small groups; for many, masks couldn’t hide some
giddy joy.
Roosevelt
High School sophomore Mimi Wang, left, adjusts a microphone for sophomore
Madison Larue-Barton at the dress rehearsal for “Mamma Mia!” Both perform in
the ensemble. (Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times)
It’s
been a long road to this “Mamma Mia!”: auditions over Zoom last spring;
careful, masked rehearsals beginning last fall; a postponement this winter (the
show was pushed out a month, due to the omicron surge); finally onstage for
seven performances this month, March 3-5 and 9-12. And it represents a
rebuilding of sorts for the program: Greve noted that, with two years of
performance time lost, the juniors and seniors in the cast don’t have the
institutional knowledge they normally would.
For the
football players, of course, everything about this experience has been
brand-new — such as learning dance numbers. “The small details matter a lot
more” than in football, said Jacob Glazer-Fleishman, a sophomore offensive
lineman. He said the choreographer was always reminding him to make little
refinements like straightening his arm — “that’s something I didn’t have to pay
attention to in sports.” Greve said the football players adapted to
choreography remarkably well: “They had a natural movement ability.”
Roosevelt
High School’s “Mamma Mia!” cast includes members of the school’s football team.
At right is Ella Chatalas, who has the lead role of Sophie. (Ken Lambert / The
Seattle Times)
And
Yaghmaie wasn’t the only one to discover a love for singing. “I was honestly
shocked that I got in. I thought, no way, I have no musical talent,” said
junior defensive lineman Beck Sweeney. “But now that I’ve had these people to
show me how to sing, I’ve realized that I’m kind of good at it. It makes me
happy.”
As with
any show, the cast of “Mamma Mia!” became a community — all the more so for
having so many new members, bringing fresh enthusiasm. Maguire, noting that the
theater program can be “kind of an insular community,” said that it was “really
special sharing this experience with people who are doing it for the first time
and learning how awesome and fun and kind of crazy it is.”
Roosevelt
High School’s “Mamma Mia!” cast makes a circle of unity before beginning
Monday’s dress rehearsal. (Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times)
Assistant
choreographer Myles Mawa, a senior, appreciated that the football players came
in with no expectations. “There was no ‘this is what it’s usually like, why
isn’t it like this now?’” Though he acknowledged “a few bumps” in the
beginning, ultimately everything came together. “We’re all able to talk to each
other and understand each other … From a choreography standpoint, it’s
definitely interesting to have nontheater people come in. Watching their growth
through the process has been really cool.”
It’s
been an opportunity not only to learn new skills, but widen social circles.
Senior Ursula DeBray, the show’s assistant director, said that while she knew
the football players from other classes, theater has always felt like a
separate space — “it’s funny to see people who were out there, and now they’re
in here. They’ve been very respectful, and I feel like I’ve made some friends.”
Corinne Fischer, a senior who plays Donna’s friend Tanya (the Christine
Baranski role in the movie), echoed the sentiment: “I feel very close to them
now. I know them very individually.” And Greve confirmed that a few romances —
no names, please — have sprung up, further bridging the divide.
Roosevelt High School students Grace Molinaro, left, who plays Rosie, and Corinne Fischer, who plays Tanya, perform during the dress rehearsal for “Mamma Mia!” (Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times)
Three
of the players, including Sweeney, had such a good time that they’re going to
be in the spring show, “The SpongeBob Musical.”
“This
whole theater atmosphere is just inviting and it excels at making you feel
welcome,” Sweeney said. “Everyone here contributes to the overall play, and
everyone just loves each other. It’s really sweet.”
“I’m so
proud of these guys,” said Greve, “for being so vulnerable, for showing up and
doing something they’ve never done before, on a stage with an audience watching
them do this thing that they’ve never done before. That’s a true testament to
their character.”
The
Monday run-through was a little bumpy for everyone, as run-throughs after a
week off tend to be. An actor came on stage still in her mask, quickly whipping
it off; a guitar prop vanished and had to be delivered midscene; a music cue
(“Mamma Mia!” uses only recorded tracks) came up wrong; and not every dance
move looked perfect, just yet. But the theater buzzed with happy energy, as
everyone on stage belted out “Dancing Queen,” whirling in formations and
beaming at each other, caught up in a long-awaited moment. Just like that, they
were no longer athletes and theater kids — they were just an ensemble, making
music and joy together.
The cast and crew of Roosevelt High School’s production of “Mamma Mia!” (Jim Bernard)
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