Pleasanton schools presenting ‘Seussical the Musical’

Amador Valley and Foothill high schools’ joint annual production is returning with a live audience this year, after a disappointing opening night in 2020 at the dawn of the pandemic that saw seats full of stuffed animals rather than people.

“What happened in March two years ago (was that) we were actually set to open, so we had to close our show on opening night and we didn’t have an audience,” longtime Amador Valley theater director and teacher Mark Aubel recalled in a recent interview ahead of this weekend’s debut of “Seussical the Musical”.

In addition to being a blow to morale, Aubel noted that the loss of live shows was a blow to funding for productions, which is generated entirely by ticket sales rather than money from the district.

Aubel said he was optimistic so far that the return of the annual spring musical, which he’s directed since 1995, would help to restore both funding and morale, particularly with this year’s emphasis on appealing to younger students, both as performers and audience members.

“This year it will be nice to have an audience, and we chose ‘Seussical’ because we thought it would really encourage the young people to come see the show,” Aubel said. “And then we had the idea to put some of the younger students in the show as well.”

Although the original plan had been to get elementary students involved, Aubel said that he’d been unable to find teachers at that level to collaborate with to form a choir, given heightened COVID-19 precautions and a later vaccine rollout for younger children. However, Aubel was able to recruit performers from Harvest Park Middle School, making this the first year ever that younger students will participate in the high school musical.

In addition to the roughly 35 middle school students, the production will consist of about another 35 students from both Pleasanton comprehensive high schools, as well as an orchestra and crew of approximately 30 and 20 teens each.

Although some more seasoned high school performers are returning to the stage this year, Aubel said that it was primarily students with less experience that had made up the pool of performers to draw from this year, given nearly two years of virtual learning during the pandemic.

“Our whole thought process was that we wanted to kind of develop a new pool of students that were interested and excited about the performing arts. So that’s why we chose the musical, just because we kind of lost some momentum there, and we lost kids so our whole goal was to do this particular show because it’s very kid-friendly,” Aubel said.

However, Aubel emphasized that the show, based on some of Dr. Seuss’ most famous tales, isn’t just for children.

“It seems like a kids’ show, but it really can grab at your heart and pull, and just take you for a ride because it’s got some really serious themes,” he said.

One of these themes, Aubel said, is exemplified in the relationship between Horton the elephant and Daisyhead Maizy, with a storyline that emphasizes the importance of kindness and “what’s inside” rather than physical appearance.

Another, he said, was the reprisal of the motto “a person is a person, no matter how small” in Horton’s efforts to save the Whos of Whoville.

“It’s really about who you are as a person and how you have to respect others and have to show kindness to others, and it’s woven throughout the show in different ways,” Aubel said. “Sometimes they’re obvious, and sometimes they’re more subtle.”

While these themes are tangible in the storyline of this year’s production, Aubel noted that what the young performers take away from their work on the spring musical most years is the value of respect, non-judgement and strong relationships, exemplified in the friendships they develop with each other.

“The kids come back and tell me that it’s one of the favorite things they’ve done in high school and that they’ll always remember it, and that they’ve made friends for a lifetime,” Aubel said. “They mostly talk about the relationships that they made doing the show. And for me that’s what’s important, is that they get those relationships and do something that they’ll remember for a long, long time.”

This is no accident, according to Aubel, who helped launch the annual spring musical in 1995 in an effort to promote collaboration and friendship, rather than rivalry, between the two PUSD high schools.

“The whole idea was to get the high schools to actually be able to work together instead of compete against each other,” Aubel said. “It’s worked out great. The kids make friends from the other school, and we utilize the teachers from each school.”

The atmosphere in the professional theater world, which can be cut throat and full of rejection, is very different, Aubel said, making high school theater all the more valuable.

“That’s why it’s so important to keep musical theater alive in the high schools, because it’s such an important opportunity for kids to experience it, because it’s so difficult to do professionally that the time to really have a great experience is in high school,” Aubel said.

Incorporating younger students this year, and encouraging their interest in theater before getting to high school, was at the forefront of Aubel’s mind for the nearly three dozen Harvest Park students involved in this year’s production.

“If they love the theater arts, then I would encourage them to participate, and obviously that’s our whole goal, trying to grow and develop beyond young artists and actors, and get them to continue with it when they get into high school,” Aubel said.

Opening night for “Seussical the Musical” is scheduled for this Friday (March 11) at the Amador Theater in Pleasanton. Performances are set for 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings, and 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoons through March 20. More information and tickets are available here.