The Coshocton County Beacon April 13, 2023 | Page 22

22 • The Beacon April 13 , 2023

River View students ready to perform ‘ Footloose ’

By Marianne Austin
River View High School performing arts students will present this year ’ s spring musical , “ Footloose ,” a 1998 musical based on the 1984 film .
This will be the eighth show Mary McMullen , drama director and drama club advisor , has directed at River View High School . She codirected “ Little Mermaid ” with Debbie English .
Dawn Anglin is the vocal director when they have live music , and Keith Watson oversees the music . McMullen is a professional costume designer and a full-time freelance costume designer . She is mentoring a student for this show to work on the costumes so she can stay with the director role .
“ Our group has grown this year ,” McMullen said . “ Last year we did ‘ Annie ’ with about 21 kids , which is a feat in and of itself . The students were incredible , picked up the banner and went with it . I always like to look at the group as a whole — what kind of voices we have , the kind of personalities we have , backgrounds , all that , the vibe of the group and how they work together .”
McMullen has done “ Footloose ” twice and loves the show .
“ The story behind it is so touching ,” she said . “ A lot of people when they hear ‘ Footloose ,’ they think dancing . The person who wrote the movie ‘ Footloose ’ and the lyrics for those popular songs worked with a director and producer in New York to get it made
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into a stage musical . How I see the show is that it is less about a big dancing spectacle as it is about a town that needs healing .”
There is no dancing allowed in the town for the last five years because of a tragic car
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Marianne Austin
River View High School performing arts students will present this year ’ s spring musical , “ Footloose ,” a 1998 musical based on the 1984 film .
accident on the Potawney Bridge . When teenager Ren McCormack and his mom move from the big city of Chicago to the small town of Bomont , he can ’ t quite believe he ’ s living in a place where rock music and dancing are illegal . The Rev . Shaw Moore has convinced the town to outlaw dancing , which Ren finds unbelievable .
With the help of Ariel , the reverend ’ s daughter , and Willard , a country boy who becomes his
best friend , Ren convinces the reverend to let the teenagers dance and in the process helps the town to heal from a tragedy that affected them all .
“ Ren meets Ariel , the preacher ’ s daughter ,” McMullen said . “ It is a very real story . A lot of the content will hit very close to home for some people . Everybody knows the songs from the past few years . There are some very touching songs , which are going to be new . It ’ s an important journey for the kids to go through , giving them something that has a little meat to it . It is any small-town happening now . It was originally from the ‘ 80s with songs like ‘ Holding Out for a Hero ,’ ‘ Let ’ s Hear It for the Boy ,’ ‘ I ’ m Free ,’
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