On January 8, 65 middle school students filed into the auditorium for their first rehearsal of Newsies. Three months later, at 7 p.m. on March 27, those 65 students took the stage for opening night. “I love seeing how big PA is in middle school and how many people are in the show! And it’s not just the number of people. They’re all fully committed and dedicated to the show, and they’re all so talented! I can’t believe that this is a middle school show,” Performing Arts Committee Head and senior Ellis Brown said. 

Rehearsals started out for the majority of the cast with a few days each week in January until 5 p.m. and later increased to four to five times a week until 6 p.m. Two weeks before opening night the cast started tech week, with everyone required to stay until 7 p.m. each day. “There are a lot of group numbers in this show, and the students really became an ensemble working together to put on the best show possible,” Director and Lower School drama teacher Dana O’Brien said. The cast rehearsed in many different spaces including the dance studio, the chorus room, the Harris Center, and the middle school drama room. “The show really comes together when we’re able to have the auditorium stage full time which is the week after the US finishes their production. At that point, we reconfigure many musical and dance numbers with the added space the stage affords, all while adding in tech, lighting, and sound elements,” Music Director and choral music teacher Rob Denien said.  

The show is based on the 1992 film “Newsies” which was inspired by the real-life Newsboys Strike of 1899 in New York City. The strike was organized by the young newsboys against newspaper publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst to demand better compensation for their work. “The state of our world demands that we prepare this generation to stand up for what is right and to imagine those that came before us and the struggles they went through. Now imagine these children in 1899 organizing a city wide strike in New York. That’s powerful,” O’Brien said. 

The community created over the many hours of work “is one of my favorite in the whole school,”  eighth grader Pearl Ijiwola said. The community is comprised of all of the actors and directors along with stagecraft and other adult volunteers. “The MS musical is as much about the art we are fortunate enough to create as it is to forge new bonds with folks we might not have known outside of the rehearsal space. The MS Musical is one of the favorite parts of my work at Parker. I find that working on a musical makes me a better teacher, it allows me to know my students in a new light, ” Denien said.  

While the production “went extremely well from where I was sitting,” Brown said, the cast encountered many obstacles on the way such as the highest number of absences in the cast and crew caused by illness. “Our students are busy and they really spread themselves thin. Working with them to do as many activities as they want while also devoting time to the production is always the most difficult challenge,” O’Brien said. Yet despite the absence the students were able to “come together for one final push to the finish line during tech,” Ijiwola said. “I’ve been in the musical since sixth grade and now as an eighth grader, I can really know that it has given me a sense of confidence and pride and connections with people I don’t think I would have met!”

“Newsies has always been a musical we’ve considered. It’s a tough one – the music, the dancing, and the content. This year we felt like the students were up to the challenge, and we felt like the adults on the production team were ready to go all in,” O’Brien said. “The show also just felt right for the time. A show where children have power and deserve to be empowered to stand up for change that is fair and just. That feels very Parker to me, and it’s great that we can use the theater to teach the lesson and to spread the message!”