There has been an Elvis sighting at a local high school as it appears the king of rock ‘n’ roll lives on at the Alberta High School of Fine Arts stage.
The young Main Stage cast members are busy memorizing their lines, learning their dance steps and perfecting a list of classic Elvis Presley songs for the musical All Shook Up.
Artistic director James Keary calls the musical a comical satire.
“The main underlying themes of the show are relationships and love gone awry, if you will,” he said.
The story is set in the 1960s and tells the tale of a young woman, Natalie (played by Grade 12 student Maddy Thompson), who falls in love with a freewheeling roustabout, Chad (portrayed by Grade 12 student Christian Johnson).
“He kind of has a general flair of going into towns and getting them all riled up with his moves and his music,” he said.
Natalie falls in love and ends up dressing as a man, called Ed, to befriend and get close to Chad. A variety of star-crossed relationships culminate with the big finale.
All Shook Up is a more lighthearted affair for the Main Stage program after last year’s production of Les Miserables, or the technically challenging Little Shop of Horrors from two years ago.
The songs in the play include some of Elvis’ best-known favourites like “All Shook Up”, “Jail House Rock”, “Hound Dog” and “Love Me Tender”.
The songs are universally recognizable, but there are some subtle differences the performers are learning.
You may be used to singing “Teddy Bear” in Elvis’ familiar baritone, but try singing it in harmony. It takes a different approach for the female cast members.
“A lot of the songs are changed and transposed for a woman, which takes it to a different level, it doesn’t even sound like an Elvis song,” said Grade 12 student Emily Gryba, who plays Sylvia, a single mother and owner of a honky-tonk bar.
With a line up like this, Keary said he hopes people will leave the show tapping their toes and humming the tunes.
Keary said the Main Stage program is also in a rebuilding year as many of its most experienced performers graduated this spring and he wanted something that would challenge this year’s cast and crew to expand their skills.
“So that next year they would have a passion and commitment to come back to Main Stage with a year of experience under their belts,” he said.
According to Keary, many of this year’s performers are stepping up from supporting roles to take the spotlight.
Grade 11 student Aaric Innes, who provides much of the comic relief for the play portraying the character Dennis, is making the jump to the stage after having been in a technical position last year.
In addition, Thompson is in her first year at the school, having attended Oilfields High School in Black Diamond last year.
Thompson said she can relate to her character.
“I like Natalie… she’s not out there and she’s really fun at heart, but she’s really shy too,” she said.
Thompson said the character transforms and comes out of her shell when pretending to be a man. This may have been the biggest obstacle she’s had to overcome.
“It’s hard, it took me a while to find my manly voice,” Thompson said laughing. “Lots of times I forget to do it when I’m being Ed, so I constantly have to tell myself to remember to be manly and remember my stance.”
Johnson is also making a big jump moving from the orchestra to the lead role. In previous years, he was part of the band perched in the balcony above the stage. It has been a challenging experience for Johnson so far because it’s his first time acting.
Musical director Nicole Hounjet encouraged him to move from the orchestra to the lead role.
“Last year I spent a lot of time watching everybody onstage and it was so cool to watch them onstage so I thought I’d maybe try something different,” said Johnson.
He said it has been a challenging task so far learning choreography and perfecting songs all made famous by Elvis.
Johnson modeled his on-stage persona on characters in the classic movie Grease and his character is quite a ladies man.
“He’s cool and he finds girls are easy to get because they fall for him,” he said.
The show takes to the Foothills Composite stage on Feb. 3, 4, and Feb. 8 to 11, with two shows on Feb. 11. Tickets are $20 and can be bought at 403-540-6574.
