The curtains closed on Disney’s Freaky Friday on Saturday, Jan. 25. Katherine and Ellie switched for the last time after selling 1800 tickets over the span of four shows. 

“The onstage stuff is really fun, but real connections with real people in the real world are fantastic, and the memories I’ve made are all great,” junior ensemble member Nico Hamburger said. 

The process was eight weeks long beginning in November. The cast worked rehearsals every day after school from 2:45-5:00: blocking scenes, learning dances, and working musical numbers. 

“This process has given me the opportunity for a lot of personal growth,” junior  Morgan Bell, who played Adam said. “Before this show, I had never sung before, especially in a show. Being put in this role has been a very exciting but stressful endeavor, but it taught me that if you keep at something, and not let negative thoughts put you down, you can do it.”

Freaky Friday is quite a jump from the 1920s Austria setting of last year’s Sound of Music. Freaky Friday takes place in modern-day Chicago, moving between the Blake house and Ellie’s high school. 

“This musical mainly stands out to me from other musicals because it takes place in 2020,” junior Emily Freeman, who played one of Savannah’s minions, said. “We use our phones on stage and most of our costumes are clothes we wear in real life.”

Similarly to last year, the show involved over 100 students from different departments. Theatre kids, choir kids, tech kids, orchestra kids and band kids all came together to create a piece of art on stage. 

“My favorite part was getting to work with other fine art students from theatre and orchestra,” junior saxophone player LeAna Simpson said. “I genuinely enjoyed being able to collaborate with others and combining all of our talents for the show.”

For the first time ever, the cast performed an open dress rehearsal for 800 sixth and eighth-graders on January 22nd during the school day. Cast and crew members had to be all in to present their project for an audience, completely ready to share their thoughts and opinions. 

“I learned how important characters in the background are,” Hamburger said. “They can make or break the show depending on how they do. If they perform poorly then the show will tank. If they bring their all, the show will be more effective as a whole.” 

As the kitchen island gets taken down and the hoverboard gets stowed away, the theatre department prepares for their next endeavors of the spring season. Hopefully, the audiences that enjoyed the world of Freaky Friday will come back to join the actors in whatever words they create next. 

“It was a fun, well-acted, relatable show,” Daniyaal Qazi said. “One of the best I’ve seen at CP.”