By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Charlie Brown is on the spot again.
No he’s not on the mound with two outs and the bases full of Peanuts.
No, he’s not trying to get a kite aloft with a spindly tree playing defense.
No, he’s not squaring up to kick the football held by Lucy.
Instead Charlie Brown is getting ready to saunter onto the Bowling Green Performing Arts Center stage to bring some smiles to a pandemic-dazed audience.
Bowling Green High School will present the musical “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” Thursday, April 29, and Friday, April 30 at 7 p.m., Saturday, May 1 at 2 and 7 p.m., and Sunday, May 2 at 2 p.m. Click for tickets. The Saturday matinee is the understudy show. A limited number of seats are available to watch the show in person. Livestreaming is also available.
The high school always aims to bring a ray of positivity to the community, said Terra Sloane, the president of the Drama Club. “But this year especially for young children, that’s really the target audience, a moment to forget all the crazy things we’ve been dealing with and have fun. That’s what we’re hoping for.”
Last year’s musical, “The Little Mermaid,” was already in rehearsals when it was canceled.
“Everyone was eagerly awaiting” a decision on whether there would be a musical this year, said Sloane, who plays Snoopy.
“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” was selected because the faculty weren’t sure early in the year what they would be able to stage, said JoBeth Gonzalez, the high school, drama teacher and the play’s director. “We knew we could do the show completely virtually if we had to.”
The show’s smaller cast made it more amenable to social distancing unlike the usual musical casts of dozens that packed the stage for dance numbers. The cast will also perform in masks.
As usual, Gonzalez said, everyone who auditioned, 20 students, got a part cast. In addition to the cast on stage the production involves 10 student instrumentalists and 18 in the technical crew.
They have also added an additional Saturday matinee, which will feature the understudies taking the lead. Gonzalez said the short running time makes this possible, and it gives the understudies a chance in the spotlight.
It also makes the whole show stronger she said, because the leads take parts in the chorus, so they have to learn the show from another perspective.
Megan Amburgy, who is the understudy for Lucy, said she appreciates the chance to star for one show. “It gives me the opportunity to get used to being center stage so some day in the future if I get a feature role, it’ll be easier to adjust.”
She likes playing Lucy because she feels they are both extroverts. “I wanted to be Lucy originally because it’s the part that best fits my personality.”
The other Lucy, Whitney Bechstein, has a different attitude toward the role. For one, she didn’t audition to be Lucy. When she fills out audition forms, she said, her response to the question about what role she prefers is to write: “Put me where you think I’d fit best.”
She said: “I just let it happen from there. … I end up happiest when they chose what they think will be right for me.”
In this case, she gets to play someone very different from herself.
She thinks of herself as “a kind, sweet and bubbly person.”
“Lucy is just the opposite of that,” Bechstein said. “She’s mean and demanding and selfish and all that other fun stuff. So it has been a bit of a challenge trying to step into being that kind of person.”
That’s what she likes about acting – this is the sophomore’s 12thshow going back to her start with Horizon Youth Theatre. “I’m very shy,” she said. “It’s fun to play a character who’s not me. When I sing normally, just myself, I get really nervous, very nervous. But when I go out there as another character, all the nerves go away because I’m not myself, I’m putting on another character for other people to see.”
Cole Nemeth, a senior who plays the title role, also feels he’s playing against type. When he gets down, he said, he tends to let it out. “But Charlie Brown just slumps.”
Nemeth compared him to Eeyore, the stuffed donkey with a bleak attitude in the Winnie the Pooh stories.
Nemeth said he has had an affinity for Charlie Brown since he was very small. When he was young, he said, he had a hard time making friends. His paternal grandmother had a stash of Charlie Brown specials on VHS, and he watched them all. “I related a lot to Charlie Brown,” he said.
After he was cast as the iconic character, he revisited those specials. He constantly asked himself: “What would Charlie Brown do in that situation? How would you walk like this character?”
And Charlie Brown has something to teach children 70 years after he made his debut, Nemeth said.
“Everyone can relate to him,” he said. “Everyone faces hardship or failure. It’s very common to feel really sad and depress about it and sulk. But Charlie Brown still goes outside and tries to talk to people. He never gives up.”
Nemeth approached the pandemic the same way. He was looking forward to playing Chef Louis in “The Little Mermaid.” But he resigned himself when the show was canceled. “That’s OK. There are always other opportunities, and you make the best of them.”
He worked hard at his studies and took time to read a lot. “I took the time instead to invest in myself.” He also encouraged friends who weren’t faring as well.
All the “Peanuts” characters are relatable, Gonzalez said. They filter adults foibles and concerns through children. And Charlie Brown is ever the lovable loser.
“We also picked it because it’s a comedy. It’s light,” she said. “We wanted to give the community something fun and colorful because we couldn’t last year.”
The high school musical has a special spot for the community. “A musical gives the community, first of all, something joyful to celebrate, even if it has a poignant storyline.”
It also brings together all the arts and “celebrates what we can all do together.”
And, she continued, “for students it’s the growth they have, not just in terms of skills as actors, singers, dancers and technicians and orchestra members, but the growth that they find in themselves as they learn to meet deadlines and collaborate to be part of something that’s so much bigger than themselves.”
And after being stuck at home isolated from their peers they were ready to put on a musical. “Even early on when we were rehearsing hybrid, they came ready and starving to work,” she said. “They didn’t want to play games and do theater warmups. They wanted to jump in.’”
Bechstein said the show has an added energy because it is the first school musical for both the freshmen and the sophomores.
“It’s important because we don’t get to see raw happiness on people’s faces,” Amburgy said. “It’s always through a screen, and you can never trust something on a screen.”
The audience will experience the joy the cast takes in presenting the show. “Everyone on stage is having fun. We all wanted it. We all auditioned for the show.”
Everyone who sees it, whether in person or through the livestream “is going to feel a sense of happiness by seeing our raw happiness.”
***
Also in the cast are: Drew Thomas, Charlie Brown understudy; Maggie Titus, Sallie; Rose Walter, Sally understudy; Kelsey Kerr, Snoopy understudy; Alex Meade, Linus; Reagan Otley, Linus understudy; Emma Matney, Schroeder; and Grace Hauck, Linus understudy.
Chorus members: Lauren Clifford, Emma Ferguson, Celia Miller, Jezelle Mitsch , Rory Mott, Kathryn Mullins, Katie Osten, and Riley Rader.
