This year, Aragon’s musical will be “Mamma Mia,” running from Nov. 17 to Nov. 20. There’s one difference this year, though: the musical will return to the fall semester, when it was originally held prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The shift in the timing forced some students to choose between the musical and other commitments.
Before the pandemic, Aragon’s musicals were set in the fall. However, due to the uncertainty regarding the return back to school, the musical was moved to the spring. This year, theater director Shane Smuin, who has directed Aragon’s annual musical for 17 years, switched it back to the 2020-21 pre-pandemic schedule.
“It’s very challenging to balance everything”
“Coming back from online school to in-person, none of us were sure how things were going to go,” Smuin said. “I wanted to do the play in the fall semester [because] it would be easier to move that than move the whole musical around.”
For senior Ashlyn Tsui, a returning participant in the musical, the switch from spring to fall was tolerated, but not entirely welcomed.
“It’s very challenging to balance everything,” Tsui said. “I would much prefer for [the musical] to be in the spring when everything’s … already set.”
Some students dropped the musical due to other priorities. With seniors struggling to manage college applications and athletes joining fall sports, participating in the musical was considered to be too strenuous.
“I dropped [the musical] because [of] college applications,” said senior Andre Wang. “[I’m] doing a lot of music [activities] … Doing that and the musical and college applications [would have been] impossible.”
In contrast, some of the production’s underclassmen are finding it easier to have the musical in the fall due to the notable increase of workload that many students expect during the spring.
“It’s more stressful in the second [semester],” said sophomore Alessandra Hernandez. “I enjoy the switch [to] the fall.”
No matter the workload, senior Gemma Gibeault is grateful she chose to participate in the musical again.
“It’s worth being in the musical and I love it,” Gibeault said. “I did have to give up some other extracurriculars [and] it’s hard to balance everything, but I’m glad that I chose the musical.”
As in-person learning solidifies, the decision to keep the musical in the fall may be permanent.
