Pine-Richland's Spring Musical a Big Deal on a Small Stage

is known for its large spring musical productions, but this year organizers had to think big in a much smaller space.

Due to construction issues, the musical was moved from —with its big stage, 1,500 seats, built-in lighting, orchestra pit and multi-level curtaining—to the much smaller middle school stage.

seats 500, although some of those seats have been lost to scaffolding, and most of the technology that is built-in at the high school has had to be bought, moved or built at the middle school.

Parents and students have worked long hours to hang lights, wire the auditorium for sound, build scaffolding to hold the equipment, build sets and hang special curtains. The directorial staff has had to adapt to the challenges of blocking and choreographing a high-energy, dance-intensive show in a limited space.

It's resulted in some big headaches, but also in some big, brilliant ideas. For example, says producer Carole Rost, they decided to "cast" the orchestra as the actual Wedding Singer Band and keep them on stage for the whole show, thus solving the problem of the lack of an orchestra pit.

Another big challenge has been the date issue. Because of the smaller venue, more shows were added. Instead of opening on a Friday, the show is opening on Thursday, March 15.

"Our Friday and Saturday shows are nearly sold out, but we have a lot of great seats for both of our Thursday shows," says ticket co-chair Karen Dionise. "We are encouraging people to buy tickets for a Thursday show."

The dates of those Thursday shows are March 15 and 22. Tickets are $12 each.

Don't worry too much about staying up too late on a school/work night either—the run time of the show is only two hours, not including intermission. (This is a correction from an earlier version that said the show ran 90 minutes.)

Tickets are on sale Saturday at the high school from 11 a.m. to  2 p.m.; Monday and Tuesday from 1 to 3 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m.; and Wednesday at the middle school from 1 to 3 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m.

The show runs March 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24 at 7:30 p.m.

The award-winning Pine-Richland musical program may be in a smaller venue, but it still has the talent and heart for a really big show.