On Friday, Dec. 6, the Tracy High Drama Club transformed the stage into a romantic, chaos-filled cruise ship with the musical “Anything Goes.” Lights dimmed at 7 p.m. and the audience was engulfed for the next two hours by singing, dancing, and at least four different plotlines.
Showgirl Reno Sweeney, played by junior Grace McFadden-Smith, stood out amongst the cast in her trademark color of red. Her character could be seen throughout the show leading numerous songs and dance numbers.
McFadden-Smith described Sweeney as a dream character for her.
“This is one of my favorite roles I’ve ever gotten,” she exclaimed. “I’ve never really danced before in a performance at Tracy High, so I was super excited!”
With her passionate mindset, McFadden-Smith put much exhilaration into her performance.
“I like that I can use my voice,” began McFadden-Smith. “Singing is, to me, a really big art and I’ve always loved to sing.”
Her initial love interest, Billy Crocker, who was played by freshman Harrison Foster, carried less experience than McFadden-Smith, but performed just as strong. This was his first ever show, but since he performed in almost every scene, Foster became familiar with how things ran.
“When I first started and I knew that I was the lead character, I was like ‘this is crazy, I don’t think I can do it,” admitted Foster. “I feel like it pushed me to try my hardest, and I think I finally got it down.”
Foster described the amount of support he received from his other cast mates and how that aided him in his hectic performance.
“It was crazy, but there’s been so much support from the people,” affirmed Foster.
One cast member who was of much help to Foster was his true love interest, Hope Harcourt played by junior Peyton Toon. Toon actually aided many of her castmates as she was the Makeup Lead and also because as she has a background in dance allowing her to aid in choreography.
“When our dancer teacher, John Amador, was explaining things and another student had a question about it, they would ask me and I would go help them,” Toon stated.
As the musical covers numerous plots, much of the story is supported by the comedy, which Toon acknowledged happily.
“I like how it’s very funny,” noted Toon. “I feel like there’s a lot of jokes and there’s jokes you really need to think about for a second and then once you get it, they’re funny.”
The three main characters and the rest of the ensemble displayed the group’s bond as the story progressed, and their effort could be seen in every detail.
“I worked really well with the other two leads,” began Toon. “Building chemistry was easy with Foster because we’re both kind of the same person, we’re always laughing.”
This production was supported by a large, dedicated team. It was directed by Diana Whitney and choreographed by John Amador.
On the student side, it was all made possible by Assistant Student Director Lorelai Jobe, Stage Manager Scarlet Foster, and Scenic Designer Alanna Dye. But there were numerous contributions along the way and the rest of the dedications can be seen on the program.
