In 1950, the Musical Guys and Dolls was written as a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. Later it was turned into a musical with the songs and lyrics written by Frank Loesser. The Musical opened on Broadway on November 24, 1950.
Arlington High School decided on Guys and Dolls for their yearly musical. They auditioned for the musical in November and their first rehearsal was in December. The leads were Judah Butcher (26’) as Sky Masterson, Aurora Cooper (28’) as Sarah Brown, Hunter Luke Fryer (27’) as Nathan Detroit and Alessandra Seldan (26’) as Adelaide.
Their first showing was on February 27th and had four more showings until they went off to State. It took a lot of practice, hard work, and dedication. “We’ve been working on this since early December. So that’s about three months and we have rehearsal after school every single day for like three hours on average,” said Hazel Weber (26’).
They not only had to memorize lines but also dances and lyrics. There were 10 scenes in Act one as well as 13 songs. In Act two there were 7 scenes and 10 songs. The Jazz band played background music directed by John Aguilar.
“It took about three and a half months of prep to get everything set up, get everything ready, memorize our lines, memorize song lyrics. Dances was the biggest thing. I think we put about a total of two months into just dancing alone. We did a lot outside of school, like Saturday mornings to practice dances and choreography.” said Tristen Black (26’).
The Guys and Dolls Musical is a very complex piece. The viewers get to see two separate love stories being conflicted by a gambling game called the Crap Game.
“So it follows a few different main characters. The first being Nathan Detroit, who is tasked with setting up a New York crap game …And he has a really hard time finding a spot to have this game. At the same time, he’s trying to balance his love life with his fiancee Adelaide. While this is happening, there’s another group of characters, Skye Masterson, that Nathan tries to bet that money to start the game, while he is also trying to win over the affection and win that bet of another character, Sarah Brown.” said Black.
Even though the Musical was very complex with a lot of different things going on, the cast did a beautiful job of conveying what was happening.
“ A lot of very jokey villain kind of characters. It’s not a very serious play at all. It’s very comedy driven, and has a lot of singing numbers,” said Black.
This is a very big commitment and you have to be very dedicated to want to be a part of this. The end result is immaculate. Since it is such long hours with the same people, they get very close.
“It’s something that brings me more joy than literally anything else. I love all the people there. We’re all friends and singing and dancing and just performing on stage gives me a feeling that’s not like anything else.” said Weber.
When you spend so much time together every single day, you begin to build relationships and get to learn more about each other. You create memories and special moments that will make you laugh forever.
“I haven’t found anything else that is as enjoyable and fulfilling as being a part of theater, being a part of drama. It’s a very fulfilling experience.There’s nothing else that I’ve experienced that’s come close to it. It’s where my people are. I met a lot of really, really cool people through our previous show, Blind Spirit, and even more through Guys and Dolls. It was just a very community driven experience that I have not gotten from anywhere else.” said Black.