5 Tips for a Successful School Musical

Surprise! You’re in charge of planning the spring musical for your school.

• Gather Your Team of Experts – Chances are, you aren’t a lighting designer, choreographer, and musical director all in one. Successful musicals are made by pulling together a team of people that know more than you do about their craft. By working with designers, you will be able to focus on helping students learn what the need to know.

• Choose the Right Show – Consider the students you have to work with and their wide variety of talents. The number of speaking roles, the danceability of your students, and the size of the venue are all important considerations to make before choosing a musical. A smaller school may struggle to pull of “Annie”, but is a great fit for “A Year with Frog and Toad”, which has a much smaller cast.

• Plan Ahead for Setbacks – As you are putting together your rehearsal schedule, make sure to budget some TBA rehearsals. Illness, unexpected conflicts, or unexpected loss of rehearsal time are bound to happen. By scheduling some flexible rehearsal time, you give yourself an opportunity to catch up on whatever you might have missed without throwing off your entire schedule.

• Use Your Parent Volunteers – Parents can be a huge asset to getting your show on its feet. From building sets to organizing carpools to selling concessions at the show, volunteers are a great way to spread out the workload. Consider surveying your parents at the beginning of the production to see how they can best help.

• Let Students Participate – students don’t just need to be the actors. The more involved your students are in the production, the more invested they will be in its outcome. Students are great at creating props, assisting with technical aspects, passing out flyers to local businesses, and more. Get creative and ask your students how they can help your production.