AHS production hits stage Friday and Saturday

ALAMOSA — Alamosa High School (AHS) is putting on a production of “Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” Friday and Saturday night, and anyone looking to spend about an hour watching a fast-paced play with actors prepared for their roles and really enjoying their parts needs to look no further.

During dress rehearsal Wednesday night, each of the actors did an excellent job. Even though some actors had to fill in for others who were not there (a conflict with the band schedule) such that even the director, AHS English teacher Micaela Fleming, had to be on stage and reading a part, the rehearsal went off without a hitch.

“I think they did a fantastic job,” Fleming told the Valley Courier after dress rehearsal was over. “Especially as we were missing cast members. They did a good job filling in and putting a lot of energy into the roles. I think we’re ready for tomorrow.”

Fleming knows what she is talking about. Although some years (sadly, not this year) she gets to teach a “theater elective,” class, she is known as an English teacher teaching freshman through junior English. But Fleming is also an AHS alumni, who grew up on the school district stages in middle school and high school.

“The high school doesn’t have a theater department,” she says. “It’s just me. About two years ago, I took over from the old English teacher when he left, and I have a passion for theater. I grew up doing it here, in Alamosa.”

So, after teaching a full schedule during the day, Fleming does not choose to go home as others might. Instead, she heads for the theater where she has been working with the students doing set design, coaching the students running the lights and rehearsing with a relatively large cast of students ranging from freshmen to graduating seniors. When asked why she does it, her answer is simple and, yes, passionate.

“I love the creativity. I feel that it’s one of the few things the high school offers for students that is a creative outlet. And it incorporates so many things – acting, set design, technology with the lights. And the kids feel free to be themselves. They don’t always feel free to do that in the classroom, but they feel free here.”

And this is no simple production.

With actors on stage the entire time, there are five different set changes and 16 actors playing a total of 27 different roles. Not all 27 characters speak but many of them involve costume changes from one scene to the next, and some of the non- speaking parts (played by actors who play other roles with lines) are in scenes that are choreographed.

“It definitely makes it more complicated. There’s more to juggle and more people for me to direct,” she says. “But I chose [Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory] for a reason.

“I was hoping that such a big cast would open it up for more people to feel like they could audition. And doing such a familiar story might grab more of the students’ attention because Willie Wonka is so well known. Last semester, we didn’t get enough kids to fill the musical I wanted to put on so I was hoping, since this play is so popular, that the students would feel more willing to audition.”

Apparently, the gamble paid off. Everyone who auditioned got a role. And, while Fleming lost a few students who decided to drop out of the production, the students who stayed were up for the challenge.

AHS senior Tyler Cook simply thrives in the role of Willy Wonka and struts on stage with a confidence not often found in younger actors. Alyanna Lucero, another AHS senior, pulls off the role of little tough boy, gun toting Mike TV beautifully.

In a conversation with the Valley Courier prior to the beginning of rehearsal, Autum Chacon (playing Veruca Salt) and Alycia Carpenter Martinez (Violet Beauregarde) were quiet and soft spoken, but, once on stage, they transformed into bickering, foot-stomping little girls.

Gibson Gillespie, a freshman in his first AHS performance, plays a wonderful Grandpa Joe with all the mannerisms and moves of an old man. And Asher Kreps, a GOAL student who was welcomed into the cast, was the perfect choice for the quiet, thoughtful but watchful Charlie Bucket.

And all the other characters, including Kai Tandberg, Juan Finley Villegas Chaney, Macayla Hastey, and others, were just as much fun to watch.

So, the lights are set, the actors are prepared and confident, the director is sure they are ready. All they need now is the audience.

The production is Friday and Saturday night on the stage at Alamosa High School. Curtain is at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 for students and $8 for adults.