Extra! Extra! Disney’s “Newsies” sells out at the Taylor University Theatre.
The show focuses on hordes of newsboys parading around the stage, shouting for fair wages and treatment. Meanwhile, the main antagonist paces around the stage in a flurry of rage. Hulking metal trusses and fragments of the industrial setting frame the stage. Bright colors from feathery outfits flutter up and down.
The show's plot, inspired by the Newsboys Strike of 1899, follows a group of boys struggling to make ends meet. To survive, they sell newspapers on the streets of New York.
When an overzealous publisher raises the prices of the papers, the already impoverished street boys decide to go on strike, refusing to sell any more papers.
Taylor Theatre began the audition process directly following the wrap of the preceding show, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” During this time, actors got together and did deep dives into their characters and the time period.
The cast often rehearsed past midnight. This led to some exhausted but exciting dress rehearsals, according to cast member Hannah Wylie, a sophomore English education and theater arts major who plays the character, Katherine, in the show.
“I have to get to the theater by 4:30, and I don’t leave until around 12:30,” Wylie said. “We’re all a little underslept.”
Wylie has found the whole process to be very rewarding. She added that the guidance of their director, Tracy Manning, assistant professor of theatre arts and managing and artistic director of theatre, reminded them that everything they do is for the glory of God.
Rehearsals were a rich process that showcased students' various artistic assignments in the production.
The elaborate costumes accurately reflected the 1890’s news world aesthetic, while hard work was put into the dancing on the moving set. Other elements included in-depth fight choreography meticulously laid out by the fight coordinators.
“My favorite thing has definitely been working with the cast,” senior Katelyn Bertsche, a theater major who played a nun and a bowery beauty in the show, said. “Around 80% of the cast is made up of freshmen, and there are so many cast members who aren't a part of the theater department, which has brought such a fun energy into the room.”
Bertsche said she really enjoyed welcoming new students into the place that she and so many others have called home for the past four years.
Putting on such a big show has had its challenges and creative solutions, according to Wylie.
“Newsies” has a large set, including two large moving set pieces that take up the stage and are flipped for each scene. High-energy, spirited strike scenes and large-scale dance numbers require rigorous choreography, not just by dancing but also by fighting, according to freshman accounting major Jack Anderson.
Anderson spearheaded the fight choreography. He also played Joseph Pulitzer, who is the main antagonist. His character is an overzealous publisher who attempts to quell the newsboy rebellion in the show.
Anderson is a “fight captain” in the show, meaning that he is in charge of making sure the fight scenes adhere to the original choreography.
“It’s been super fun to be a part of it and to watch the others do it,” Anderson said. “It gets pretty heated.”
Newsies sold out every show for Grandparents Weekend, as well as every show for the following weekend.
Junior Josiah Palmer attended one of the opening shows and was wowed.
“I thought it was inspirational; it’s my favorite musical,” he said. “It was great to see Taylor put on the show and do it justice.”
