You all know the famous song Tomorrow. The sun is coming up for the Woodmore High School Drama Department as they’re putting on the show Annie this year! Annie is a musical with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and a book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for almost 6 years. Annie won 7 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The musical’s songs “Tomorrow” and “It’s the Hard Knock Life” are among the show’s most popular musical numbers.

     A little background on the show if you don’t know what Annie is about. It’s 1933 in New York City and eleven-year-old Annie is in an orphanage with many other girls her age. All Annie wants to know is who her parents are and she believes one day they will come back for her. Annie tries to escape but is caught by the cruel Miss Hannigan who is in charge of the orphanage.  Miss Hannigan hates her job and only does it for the money. She especially hates Annie, because she’s always getting into trouble and makes Miss Hannigan’s life miserable.

     One day Grace Farrell who is the assistant to the billionaire Oliver Warbucks, comes to the orphanage in hopes she can take one lucky orphanage to spend Christmas with Oliver Warbucks in his mansion. That orphan happens to be Annie. 

     I was able to talk to this year’s cast of Annie. Senior Rylee Williamson is playing the title role of Annie. Williamson has been doing musicals for 8 years and she has been in 9 shows total. Williamson’s favorite part about being in musicals is “being able to interact with my friends on stage, we all play off of each other very well”. It is a tall task to play a lead role in a musical and Williamson has said one challenge she faces is “memorizing my lines and not having a lot of downtime off stage”. You may wonder how a high school student can prioritize school and extracurricular activities and having time for themselves. Williamson just “takes one day at a time”, she keeps track of things by putting them in a calendar with all her events and rehearsals.

     Another cast member, Senior Aden Carter is playing the billionaire Oliver Warbucks. Carter has been doing musicals for 4 years. He likes “Getting to rehearse and have fun with all my friends”. A challenge Carter faces is “always needing to get it right every time”. A way Carter prioritizes school and extracurricular activities is by doing his school work first as soon as he gets it so he can just get it done. A favorite memory of Carter is during freshman year was going to B-Dubs. 

     Last but not least Senior Ava Rich who is playing the role of Miss Hannigan. Rich has been doing musicals for 4 years and this is her ninth show. Her favorite part of being in musicals is “the friendships made which is super cheesy but so true!” Nothing cheesy about that, theatre is like one big family! Rich also has the challenge of learning the lines but she has “learned skills through all of my shows”. A favorite memory of Rich is getting her first big role in a show sophomore year. “I got to play Sour Kangaroo in Seussical. Another favorite memory is branching out to community theater shows”. When asked how Rich prioritizes school and extracurriculars, she said “Theater is basically my whole life and I have an interest in doing it after high school so theater pushes me to do well in school”.

     This is going to be a fantastic show to go see in March! The dates of the shows are March 21, 22, 23 at 7:30 pm and March 24th at 2:00 pm. For ticket information, the number is 419-704-7807. All the performances are at the Woodmore K-8 building. Please come out and support your classmates as well as support the Woodmore Community!