By Olivia Buster, ’20
The musical of Anything Goes is set in the 1930s’ on a boat sailing from New York to London. On board the ship a cast of spontaneous characters navigate the murky waters of love triangles, family ties, and the hustle and bustle of the Golden Age.
Jordyn Stone (left on picture)
Character: Hope Harcourt
How would you describe your character?
“I’m a debutant. I care about pleasing my mother, and my father died when I was young. I do my best to please my mother, but I tried to branch out and do other things. I am also in love with someone who doesn’t have a lot of money, but I am being forced to marry someone who does have a lot of money by my mother.”
What is one interesting thing about your character?
“She comes off at the beginning as very frail and weak, but I think deep inside she is probably one of the strongest characters in the show.”
What traits do you and the character your playing share?
“I think we are both sensitive and we definitely care about making other people happy sometimes over ourselves.”
Do you want to pursue music for your future career?
“I’m actually in the middle of college auditions right now. I had three this past weekend. I am going for a bachelors in music in vocal performance. A third of my classes have to be music and the rest of the two thirds can be anything I want so I have something to fall back on. I can still audition for shows if I want to while doing that.”
How did you get interested in music?
“I was in third grade and I went and saw one of my friends in a show and I fell in love with it ever since. No one in my family does music, it kind of popped out of nowhere so it just is my own thing and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
What’s your advice to high schoolers who want to become leads in future musicals?
“Take what you get and just go with it. Just because you don’t get a lead in a musical when you are a freshman or sophomore even a junior, it doesn’t mean that your not perfect for the next musical. It’s not about getting what you want it’s about what they need.”
Kate Glaser (right on picture)
Character: Reno Sweeney
How would you describe your character?
“Reno is very sassy and confident. She started out as an Evangelist and she turned into a nightclub singer. What she really wants is someone to share her life with. My character is a lot deeper than she appears on the surface.”
What is one interesting thing about your character?
“She lives a life of glamour where she has a bunch of material objects; a bunch of fancy things. She has all these people trying to be with her, shes sort of a celebrity. What she really wants, but lets nobody discover about her, is that she really just wants companionship and someone to share everything with.”
What traits do you and the character your playing share?
“Reeno and I both like to perform. We’re very out there, we’re very loud people, we’re very talkative people, and we both use humor and sarcasm in situations to hide what we are really hiding sometimes. In situations where deeper feelings are being talked about and brought into conversation, we try to avoid it.”
Do you want to pursue music for your future career?
“I’m looking into majoring in musical theater for college, I’ve been doing shows around Columbus for about six or seven years. Probably around five to nine shows a year. I’m hoping to turn that into a career whether it be acting,performing,directing, or producing someday.”
How did you get interested in music?
“I started choir from a very young age at my church. Then I began doing the plays and musicals in my middle school. When I started doing those I knew I wanted to do more because it was what I was really interested in. With the help from some of my educators, Mr.Monseur from Hastings and Mrs.Delcan from my elementary school, and some past directors they helped me find this theater community in Columbus to become apart of.”
What’s your advice to high schoolers who want to become leads in future musicals?
“Audition. Audition everywhere around the state as much as you can. There are ton of summer programs that focus not only on doing a show but training. Training is something that is the most important when going into something like this. When your doing a show your focusing on a very specific time period and character, but when you can train with an acting coach or vocal coach, they give you raw tips to help you have success throughout and later into your career.”
Jackson Sloan
Character: Sir Evelyn Oakleigh
How would you describe your character?
“Its essentially the dream role for me in this school musical. I would consider myself a very over the top English stereotype. Hes this silly, wealthy Englishman who has a dark but funny secret concerning his family background of gypsies. Probably the best part for my character in the play is when he performs this ridiculous dance number with the main female lead Reeno, where he unleashes his inner gypsy.”
What is one interesting thing about your character?
“Since I’m a foreigner to America on this cruise ship of all Americans, I’m making this notebook of all expressions the Americans use.”
What traits do you and the character your playing share?
“When I was young, and I still do, I just love acting like a fool in front of the mirror, or just in the camera. And with Evelyn its a role where I’m essentially being myself. Its kind of like a relief to finally be able to just show them the real person inside me.”
Do you want to pursue music for your future career?
“I’d rather pursue my childhood dream of just making movies and acting and directing.”
How did you get interested in music?
“It started in fifth grade, because ever since I was a baby I always wanted to pursue a part in movies. I would act in front of the camera and make stupid faces in the mirror. I never pursued an act of wanting to sing that was kind of too embarrassing for me. I went to Wickliffe, and in fifth grade I joined the choir and it took awhile for me to get use to it. I started doing it in middle school, but I wasn’t a big musical type of guy until eighth grade when I started rewatching Disney films. I really enjoyed the Disney musicals. I wanted to see if I could get a role in a Disney musical and I did. I got a little supporting role. Even if you have to sing these ridiculous numbers and chords and such it still adds to this loveable character that you play and its very enjoyable both for me and knowing that the audience enjoys it as well. Its incredible.”
What’s your advice to high schoolers who want to become leads in future musicals?
“Be yourself. Be friendly. Be optimistic about things, just be very casual about it. But of course you have to have some good background information about your character. I embraced it and I didn’t act embarrassed in front of all these other people my age who are just pursuing that same dream along with me. I’m happy I got a part at all, I just love the vocal music community and I want to be apart of it.”
Jimmy Contakis
Character: Billy Crocker
How do you describe your character?
“Hes called a stuffed-shirt stock broker so he works on Wall Street and he tries to make money for his boss’ company. Hes up and coming in the world of Wall Street. Hes a businessman..”
What is one interesting thing about your character?
“He does whatever he wants. Whatever he thinks will put him into the best position and that ultimately gets him aboard the ship in the first place.”
What traits do you and the character your playing share?
“We are both kind of hopeless romantics in a way. Billy is a lot more masculine and confident than I am. I’m not the type of person that would just throw all caution into the wind and do whatever.”
Do you want to pursue music for your future career?
“I’m planning on going into musical theater in college. I’m currently auditioning for colleges to do that.”
How did you get interested in music?
“It started when I was really young. I realized that it was something that I enjoyed doing a lot and I always had people around me who do music. My grandmother sings, my dad was in the marching band in college and in high school, I guess I caught the bug and now I can’t stop singing and performing.”
What’s your advice to high schoolers who want to become leads in future musicals?
“The best piece of advice I can give is just be confident in any choice that you make, because the people behind the table, the directors and the people casting you, they can see when you don’t feel like what you did is truthful. Be truthful, and be confident in the choices that you make.”