BWW Blog: Jessica Gould - SEUSSICAL Part 1

Rehearsals for Worthington Community Theatre's production of Seussical started two weeks ago. I was cast as one of the three bird girls, which are a trio of performers similar to a girl group from the 60s and act as the narrator in addition to the Cat in the Hat. I was so excited because the role involved a lot of dancing and harmonies, and I couldn't wait to meet my new cast members!

Ironically, our very first meeting was on May 15th, the same day the story begins in the show. Since this was the start of the rehearsal process, we went around the circle and introduced ourselves, along with sharing our age, part in the show, and dream musical theatre role. It was a great way to get to know each other better. The remainder of the rehearsal was spent taking headshots and group shots and getting measured for costumes.

The second rehearsal started off with a game of musical chairs. I am proud to say I made it to the final five, even though I did have to steal a chair from a little girl to do so. After one of the Wickersham brothers won and earned a prize of a $25 gift certificate, our director, Brandon Fox, explained the purpose of playing musical chairs. He told us that since the content of the show is practically all sung, it was important to listen to the music.

Then, we started to analyze the show and its characters. Brandon instructed us to remember throughout the show to keep the stakes high. We dove in and discussed the personalities of the leads in the show, such as Horton, Gertrude, and Mayzie. It was really eye opening to hear what others thought about these characters.

Next, we conducted a table read before concluding our second rehearsal. The rest of the week, we traveled to the home of our musical director, Ashley, to learn the music. The score of Seussical is very challenging, especially for the bird girls and Wickersham brothers. There are a lot of key changes and complicated harmonies, but it is so much fun to sing.

On Sunday, May 22nd, we had our first dance rehearsal. We would be learning possibly the most fun dance number in the whole musical, "Biggest Blame Fool." It was a challenging day for me, since I had back to back three hour long dance rehearsals. Regardless, I had a blast learning choreography with my cast mates!

The cast of this production is absolutely exceptional. There is no one else that I would chose to fill each role. I can't wait to get to know each cast member better, and I can already tell that this is going to be a great production!