PLYMOUTH, Minnesota — It's easy during a pandemic to focus on all the ways we are limited. The Armstrong High School Theater Department flipped the script — showing what's possible.
Normally, AHS produces a regular musical ever year. But because of COVID, director and choreographer Megan Kelly Hubbell wasn't sure what they would be able to pull off.
"I think initially... I wanted to do something so badly with the kids. I'm a director, choreographer for my job and I lost all of my work last year. So when I talked to Armstrong, it was like, 'Can we do a musical?' and they said, 'Well, sure,'" Kelly Hubbell recalled.
When she approached the students and pitched doing SNL-type sketches that would be easy to control, the students instead said they wanted to do a throughline story.
They decided to write an original play with music called "The Big Easy" — a murder mystery set in a 1920s speakeasy.
Students wrote the entire show over Zoom.
"When we came in person, we were able to add music. So we're using music from different musicals and then a student composed a piece of music for the show, as well. So it's been a really interesting process, completely new to everyone in the show," said senior Gracey Gooley who is one of the head writers, assistant director and a cast member for the show.
It's been a tough year for the performing arts. It was around this time last year that high school theater shows were getting canceled because of COVID-19.
Junior Madeline George, property master for The Big Easy, remembers how their spring play got cut off right in the middle and they never finished it.
"It's been weird, but it's nice to come back and be with each other again even if it's with masks and socially distant," George said.
AHS students have been full distance learning since the beginning of the school year. The Big Easy cast and crew met in person to rehearse on stage. Senior Blake Hyland filmed and edited the entire performance.
"It's really nice to do something that's normal and see the people that I really enjoy going to school with," Gooley said.
Kelly Hubbell recalled a moment over lunch during filming, saying, "Just sitting all spread out but getting to listen to them giggle and tell stories and just be kids together. It was a sound I didn't realize that I missed."
George said there are a lot of details the audience can look for in the show, including the bar they worked on for several weeks. The "juice bar" includes tags with the names of people in their shop staff.
George also recalled how they have gotten creative to make some scenes work while still social distancing.
"It's fun to see how it kind of seems like maybe in 20 years this will be a relic of kind of what we did back when this was all a big virus," George said.
The Big Easy premieres Friday, March 5 at 7:15 p.m. on the AHS Activities Youtube page under the Videos section.
The show is free to watch but viewers who would like to support the program, can donate to the Armstrong Theater Boosters program here.