Ever since early March, 17 college students have been working together and practicing every day to perfect and put on three performances of “Urinetown the Musical.” On May 1, 2 and 3, 2009, “Urinetown the Musical” was performed in Manchester College’s Cordier Auditorium.

Every one of the actors had worked hard for over a month to get ready for these performances. Many were glad the moment they had prepared so much for had finally arrived while others were just surprised that the days of the performances were already upon them. Nonetheless, they were all ready to give their audience a spectacular show.

Throughout the show, a variety of characters were played by these student actors. Those few that were single characters were David Moan (Bobby Strong) Ayana Brown (Penelope Pennywise), Casey Lambert (Hope Cladwell), Hannah Reed (Little Sally), Geneviève Kidwell (Officer Lockstock) Wallace Butts (Senator Fipp). The rest of the cast had at least two roles to each of them.

Sophomore Stephen Hendricks had the most character changes throughout the show because he played Old Man Strong, Hot Blades Harry, a UGC executive and a cop. Thankfully, no one had character/identity confusion on or off stage, but some people from the cast might be referring to each other by their character names for the fun of it.

During the performances, the audience might have thought that everything was perfect for the most part, but most of the cast knew if something was off with lighting, lines, music, etc. Nonetheless, no one let the little things ruin the show and just went on without missing a beat. However, there were a couple things that went wrong and were evident to everyone.

For instance, during the Friday night performance, there was supposed to be a blackout right before Officers Lockstock and Barrel, played by sophomore Katherine Pea, throw Bobby Strong off the UGC Building. In that blackout, Bobby is supposed to quietly walk down the stairs while holding his final note and have it fade into nothing to give the impression that he fell. However, the light crew did not get the blackout in time, and everyone saw what happened.

Nonetheless, most of the cast felt that performances went well for the most part, and the reaction they got from the audience was very positive. After every show, members from the audience thanked the cast for doing a great job, and even the director, Kira Hawkins, was pleased with the cast. Also, while several members of the “Urinetown” cast were glad to be done with the show in the end, others were kind of sad that it was all over.

Though several people were given special thanks for helping with the show, the cast gave gifts and a special thanks to Hawkins, assistant director Emma Naragon and music director/piano player Tyler Secor after the final performance on Sunday, May 3.

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