Over the summer, starting in May, the students of the Parkway School District came together to put on the first all district musical in ten years, “Ranked.”
Every student from every Parkway high school was welcome to audition and showcase their talents. The musical was about a school that separated its students by rank and grades. The story follows several characters as they navigate a hectic high school journey.
Sophomore Leila Chettfour, who played Lily Larsen, talked about her experience with “Ranked” and why she chose to audition for it.
“I chose to audition because I thought it would be good to perform with all four schools and maybe at state,” she said.
Chettfour also talked about one of her favorite memories with “Ranked.”
“Opening night. I had made so many good friends. Performing with everyone and watching it all come together was cool,” she said.
Junior Samantha Lips was cast as the role of Sydney Summers in the musical. She said she loved working with drama students from the other Parkway high schools.
“It was so cool,” she said. “I call some of them my closest friends.”
Since the musical took place entirely in the summer, it definitely affected summer vacation.
However, freshman Therese Bathgate said her vacation wasn’t affected much.
“Honestly it didn’t really,” she said. “I did have a vacation during the show so I unfortunately had to miss a couple practices but I was able to catch up easily.”
However, Lips said she definitely spent most of her summer on the musical.
“My summer vacation was the musical,” she said..
But this year was a special year for Parkway theater departments; there is a possibility that Ranked might get to perform at the Missouri Thespian State Conference in January..
“Excited but nervous, when I first went to Kansas City I knew I wanted to perform there,” said Chettfour.
Lips said she is also excited about the possibility of performing “Ranked” at the State Conference.
“I’m really nervous, but I’m really excited,” said Lips.
Bathgate was very excited about potentially performing.
“It was really exciting. Of course I was excited to be in the musical itself but to be able to actually go preform in front of a huge audience would be awesome. I remember after that first show after the judges had all came we were all so proud of ourselves,” said Bathgate.
Theatre teacher Jennifer Forrest-James served as the main director of “Ranked.”
“It was nice to work with other teachers and students from other schools,” she said.
Forrest-James also said that she was excited to potentially bring “Ranked” to state, but said it will be a lot of work.
All in all, every parkway school came together to make something very profound. Every student will never forget the amount of fun they had, hard work they put in, and the amazing memories that were made. Watch out for Mean Girls the musical auditions coming up, and South High’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest will be performed on Oct. 18-20th at 7PM, and one 3:30 show on Oct. 20th.
