After a dormant fall season, the theatre department is once again active for this year’s musical, Anastasia. 

This year’s musical is extra special as it’s the 50th anniversary of EHS musicals, and choir and musical director, Abby Thompson, has some special things planned.

“We wanted to try to do some events that would encourage alumni and maybe directors who have been involved in the Elkhorn High School music program before me and past students to come back and celebrate the memories of 50 years,” Thompson said.

However, while prepping for these events, Thompson found out that EHS had musicals even prior to the 50 years that are being celebrated; they just weren’t consecutive.

“So there’s 50 consecutive years of musicals, but we’re actually celebrating 50 plus years,” Thompson said.

Thompson has also discovered an audio recording of Elkhorn High School performing Oklahoma, the very first show that was performed in the 60s. 

Today, the Elkhorn theatre and music department is thriving, but that also means that teachers have to plan for show choir, the play, and musical all happening around the same time. 

“We can coordinate really well, but it will just be a time thing more than anything,” Thompson said. “And then obviously we will work around and figure out how the facility overlap goes, but that’ll be pretty doable.”

Because of the recent weather, callbacks for the musical have been postponed. This means that the cast list hasn’t been announced yet, but many students are already very excited to be back in musical mode.

“Everyone is very comfortable around each other during the musical,” sophomore Kyla Burhan said. “The group was very fun, and everyone knew when to focus and when they could goof off.”

Burhan played Grandma Georgina in last year’s Willy Wonka and auditioned again this year. She doesn’t have a specific role in mind, but per Elkhorn tradition, every role is needed, even the ensemble.

“There’s so much music in it that’s so interesting and that’s challenging,” Thompson said. “And I just really think that the students will get excited about the really cool ensemble scenes. One of the things I look for in a show is not only is it fun to the people that get leads, because usually that’s a small number of students… So I’m really excited about the ensemble parts of this and how many different featured roles there are for dancing and some speaking roles and just different things like that.”

The story of Anastasia is similar to the animated Disney movie but with some different stories, songs, and characters.Taking place in Russia after the Russian Revolution, it tells the story of two guys convincing the Empress that Anastasia is still alive. But for more surprises, remember to attend performances the second weekend of April.