Death returns to Wakeland’s stage as the theater department rehearses for the upcoming musical Curtains.

Curtains is a musical comedy set in 1959 Boston, MA. It follows the story of a theatre-loving detective attempting to solve the murder of an actress. The investigation takes place inside a theatre, and the detective has a short deadline to solve the murder. Curtains has a large cast, and runs for about two hours and thirty minutes.

Curtains was chosen as the school musical this year because “it offers a lot of opportunities to a lot of students. There are a lot of solos, and it really fits our abilities in the fields of singing, dancing, and acting. There’s also a lot of cool set design and lighting design for it, so it’s a great fit for our whole program,” tech theater teacher Mr. Yowell said.

Yowell also said that he would love to do several productions in the future, such as Shrek The Musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, and Catch Me If You Can. He believes theater is an essential part of school because “it gives students the opportunity to practice public speaking. That skill is greatly needed, and public speaking gives students the confidence that they might not get from other subjects. Theatre also teaches problem-solving skills because something always goes wrong during shows.”

Putting on an entire production isn’t easy. There are many people with various roles that are essential to the show, both onstage and off. There are makeup artists, costume designers, actors and actresses, technicians, and many other jobs that help production run smoothly.

Hayley Delich, a senior at Wakeland, is the stage manager for Curtains. It’s her fourth year in the theater department, and she is “glad to have grown throughout the past four years to have such a big leadership opportunity.”

Delich believes that creating and collaborating with other people are some of the best things about doing theater.

Emma De La Paz, a senior at Wakeland, will be playing Georgia Hendricks in the show. Georgia Hendricks is one half of the songwriting team in the show, and she ends up taking on the leading lady role. “Theater allows me to branch out and be versatile. It’s taught me to go with the flow and be flexible,” De La Paz said.

Both Hayley and Emma said that they were unsure about the choice for the musical when it was announced. “We were all a little apprehensive at first because we didn’t know anything about it. However, now that I’ve listened to it, I don’t think there could have been a better choice,” De La Paz said.

Wakeland’s theater department will perform the musical Curtains January 13-16. Starting in December, you’ll be able to buy tickets for the show online through Wakeland Theatre’s website (https://wakelandtheatre.com/).