Before the end of the 2017-2018 school year, Mr. Lee revealed to the students the musical for this school year is “Mamma Mia”. This reveal surprised many students who were excited for their next/first musical season. As other students, I had a few questions for Mr. Lee. I reached out to him to ask him these questions, here is how it went:

Q.What made you choose “Mamma Mia” as the musical for this year?

     A. “I wanted a fun musical that was upbeat and would bring a large audience like hairspray. ”

Q. Are you excited about the new talent coming into your cast and crew?

A. “I will be when I see what it is *chuckles* I only know the cast from last year but I did hear there is a number of new kids that are going to audition.”

Q. What do you hope to accomplish through this musical?

A. “I hope to bring a bigger community presence in the school, reach out to students that would not normally do the musical at a younger age (rather than them waiting to try it their senior year), and try to encourage kids to try something they wouldn’t normally try. And maybe bring home a Mancini Award just for the fun of it.”

Q. Do you think musicals are a good way to to bring the community together? Why?

A. “Yes, I think it’s great that a community supports the school district within their community, not only through sports, but also the academics such as Business Week for an example, and they support the arts program(marching band, musical, choir programs). It’s also important for the school district and the students to support the community they live in as well.”

Q. What made you want to take on the position of director?

A. “I wanted to make sure that students had a memorable experience and created life long friends/memories just like I did in high school through the musical. I also wanted it to be a community where people felt free to be themselves without people judging them for who they are.”

Q. Were you involved in musicals when you were in high school?

A.  “Yes, the first musical I was in was “West Side Story” at the old high school in the auditorium.”

Q. What’s your favorite part about school musicals?

A. “I enjoy working with the older kids(rather than elementary) to spend time with them all and see all of you grown up outside elementary school and are able to have real conversations. You can’t do that with little kids as much as you can with high school kids. Then I like to check in with you when you leave me to make sure your life is going well; I try to give you all a support system when you leave.”

Q. What do musicals mean to you?

A. “I think music gives you an escape sometimes when you need it. Like sometimes you just need to let your mind wonder, and you need to escape real life, it gives you that escape. To be in a dark theater and to be part of something that is live and present, without technology, without being connected to social media platforms like Facebook and Snapchat and your cell phones and being there present in the moment and enjoying that human interaction, reacting to it, and feeding off them.”