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Monte Vista High School theater students are getting ready to showcase their skills on the stage – and off it – in their production of the Broadway musical “Mamma Mia!” this week.
With a recognizable story interwoven with memorable hits from 1970s Swedish pop group ABBA, including the title song, “Mamma Mia!” follows bride-to-be Sophie who wants to find out who her father is, so she invites the three likeliest candidates from her mother’s past to the wedding on a Greek island.
“It has been a crazy ride,” Chris Connor, chair of the Danville school’s visual and performing arts department, said in an email interview ahead of opening night Wednesday – which is coming together in less than two months of work.
“One of the things that we are most proud of is the student buy-in,” Connor told DanvilleSanRamon on Monday night. “We have students choreograph, direct, design and build the set, costumes, hair/makeup, lights, sound, etc. In addition, students direct, play all of the music, and even hand out our programs! It’s wild.”
“The choir teacher, our dance teacher and me are the only adults. We don’t hire in professionals, but encourage the students to put on a professional show,” he said. “As I’m typing this after 11 p.m., two days before we open, there are students painting the stage floor to make sure that it is ready. This is the level of buy-in they have and I think our track record proves that it has been worth it for them. It is also worth it to our audiences, as we have already sold out our closing night!”
“Mamma Mia” opens at 7 p.m. Wednesday (Feb. 26) and runs nightly through Saturday (March 1) in the Al Gentile Theater at Monte Vista on Stone Valley Road. Tickets, which are $20 for adults and $12 for seniors and students, can be purchased online here.
