Just a spoonful of sugar, plenty of laughs, music, and dancing are on tap for this weekend at the Carmi-White County High School auditorium. The Carmi Drama Department is preparing to unveil Mary Poppins Jr Friday and Saturday evening at 7:30pm with a Sunday matinee at 2:30pm. Director Sherry Passmore and seven of the cast swung by Kiwanis Thursday to preview the production.
It’s been nearly 10 years since “Mary Poppins” has graced the stage as a League of Arts performance. It was the first time Passmore and Lynn Cantrell took on co-directing efforts through the League and it was also the first production for now 18-year-old Laney York, a senior who’s coming full circle by playing the magical Mary Poppins.
Other students who were at Kiwanis Thursday and are featured in the play include:
Kinley Kays
Ella Newell
Cody Rouse
Ana McPherson
Katelyn Davis
Emma Legg
York is no stranger to the stage. She says it’s her 7th high school production. She’s also been a part of 2 SIC plays and 6 League of Arts shows. Being on stage and performing comes easy to York, but there are challenges filling out an entire cast. It’s not that her peers aren’t interested; there are just so many activities and experiences pulling at them and it does take a time commitment.
It’s hard to be in drama club, because this isn’t a lot of kids’ number one extracurricular. So we have kids from…we are like the melting pot…we have basketball players, cheerleaders…and we’re trying to find time this week to do Singing Six but we can’t for the play. We have kids from everything. So finding time to do play practice is difficult. So when we do a Jr. Show, that can cut down a little bit of that time and make it open to more kids I think.
York shares student directing duties with Aidan Willis and Chloe Veatch. Willis calls himself the Duke of the Dungeon while Veatch is heading up choreography.
More at Open Line ON DEMAND – Mary Poppins Jr presented by CWCHS – WRUL-FM
About 35 students in total make up the cast and crew. Doors open an hour before the show and there will be an intermission during which the Carmi League of Arts will sell concessions. Those profits will go toward helping fund the Mike Green Annual Scholarship. Runtime for Mary Poppins Jr. is expected to be about an hour and a half.
Learn more at CWC Drama Presents Disney’s Mary Poppins Jr. | Facebook
