Video: Spinning ‘Charlotte’s Web’
Theater dept. head announces 'Once on This Island' as spring musical
Now that the high school students involved in “Charlotte’s Web” have taken their final bow, theater fans can enjoy an online video documenting the theater department’s months of preparation.
The video, embedded below and entitled “Spinning ‘Charlotte’s Web,'” shows set construction, rehearsals and footage of the high school students taking their show on the road to the district’s elementary schools.
The students read to elementary school students and performed for the youngsters, “and we made an effort to take pictures all along the way,” Kilmer said. The department first created a video for spring musical “The Wiz” last year, and the response was so positive, they decided to do the same for “Charlotte’s Web.”
They played the video in a loop in the lobby while audience members entered performances in the first weekend of December.
“It was a way to display to people how we were able to take ‘Charlotte’s Web’ outside the high school,” Kilmer said.
In other Asbury Park High School theater department news, Kilmer announced the school’s spring musical, “Once on This Island,” this week. The show is by the same writing team that composed “The Little Mermaid,” Kilmer said.
The subject matter is topical given the recent Hurricane Sandy.
“It’s about a little girl who survives a hurricane and believes her life is destined for greatness because she’s been saved,” Kilmer said. “It’s also about class struggles between the haves and have-nots in Haiti.”
The show will be “a great fit for this student body,” said Kilmer, who’s wanted to direct “Once on This Island” for years.
Students from the school marching band will also participate, learning the steel drums to contribute to the Caribbean-influenced soundtrack, Kilmer said.
Auditions will be held in January.
The response to the district’s growing theater and dance department has been “fantastic,” Kilmer said. “I had kids saying, ‘Mr. Kilmer, I was at the grocery store and a lady came up to me and said, weren’t you in Charlotte’s Web?’ They feel like celebrities. They need some positive recognition from this community.”
