This year’s musical, Emma! A Pop Musical JV stars Claire Brown and Charles Friedrich as the lead characters. Emma is a musical about a girl in her senior year of high school trying to find the perfect boyfriend for a classmate, Harriet.
Amber Rumpel, the director of this year’s musical, is the theater arts teacher. She has been teaching at OTMS for the last 11 years but has only been the director for the musicals for the last five years.
“It is very stressful to be the director because when people are absent you can’t get a full rehearsal and when students don’t know all of their lines you worry things might not come together in time,” Rumpel said.
Claire Brown is an eighth grader on the Navigators team. She is also part of the student council. A few of Brown’s characteristics as Emma are smart, fun, and engaged in the lives of those around her.
“Me and Charlie are really close friends. I think it’s weird to play boyfriend and girlfriend in the musical but good to work with someone who knows what they are doing,” Brown said.
Charles Friedrich is an eighth grader on the Navigator team and is also a part of a band and does cross country. Friedrich is playing the character Jeff Knightly.
“I have always enjoyed doing musical things,” Fredrich said. “I think it is great. I have tons of friends there and it is a good experience there. We are few in numbers but we make up for it with hard work.”
Nova Gregg is an eighth grader on the Pioneer team. She is a part of the backstage crew. The backstage crew help with the lighting and help students change outfits quickly.
“I was in the backstage crew last year and I thought it was really fun and I enjoyed getting to help, so I made sure to be part of the crew again,” Gregg said.
The musical Emma will be showing on March 14 and 15 at 7 p.m. There will be one early morning performance on the March 14 as it is for cast members to practice in front of classmates they have invited.
