SLHSMTA School Highlights: Francis Howell Central High School
Nominated For Outstanding Musical Level 2
Written by 2025 SLHSMTA Student Reporter, Mary Corkery
Despite its roots as a classic play, Francis Howell Central High School’s production of Twelfth Night viewed the story from a modern, funky lens.
Twelfth Night is a musical adaptation of the Shakespeare play of the same name, which tells the story of a girl who crossdresses in hopes of finding her brother after a shipwreck and ends up getting caught in a nasty love triangle. Although Shakespeare can often be seen as daunting for theater students, Director Kim Harrison had a different perspective. For her, Shakespeare’s works are both thought-provoking and silly– a balance she first learned to appreciate by watching her own father.
“My love of Shakespeare developed with my dad. He was an English teacher for 43 years in California and was the most interesting person in our family. When I was in middle school, he brought home this old, beaten-up VHS tape for us to watch. It was “A Comedy of Errors – Live at Lincoln Center” performed by the Flying Brothers Karamozov. It was Shakespeare, performed by a troupe of circus clowns. And I was hooked,” Harrison said. “Ever since that day, I have loved Shakespeare’s comedies. They remind me of Dad, and that sometimes life can be silly and not all that serious. Shakespeare’s like that. He can present many high-brow thoughts and concepts to contemplate the meaning of life. But in between those thoughts there are an awful lot of fart and dad jokes. Shakespeare was complex, just like Dad.”
Bringing the show to stage April 16-19, Harrison said that the cast’s close relationship with one another helped the show live up to its full potential.
“This is a fairly young cast. In the past, most of my leads were seniors. In this case, there is mix of age ranges throughout the cast. Malvolio and Sebastien were both freshmen. Orsino, Feste and Olivia are juniors. My only senior lead was Viola. Also, this is a large ensemble cast and they worked really well together. We work very hard at being a family on and off stage and it was that togetherness that made a great show,” Harrison said.
Putting a modern twist on the original show, the musical includes a jazz-funk score written by Shaina Taub. Although Harrison said the amount of dancing in the high-energy production posed challenges, they were able to adapt and take on the new choreography despite the difficulty.
“The biggest place I was impressed with is that my students have never done a high dance show. I contracted a former student of mine to choreograph the show. He is a recent Webster Conservatory graduate, Muny Kid and Stages performer. He is also currently auditioning on the Broadway circuit. His name is TJ and he is AMAZING! However, he came and expected them to dance at a higher level. They rose to the challenge and worked hard, even when most of them did not have dance experience. I was very impressed at how hard they worked and then the final product,” Harrison said.
From a technical perspective, Olivia Carleton was nominated for Outstanding Student Costume Design and Execution. Rick Christensen also earned a nomination for the school for Outstanding Faculty Scenic Design and Execution. It was a grand set for a grand production– almost too grand at times, but Harrison said they were able to make it work.
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Our set ended up bigger than our overall plan. I’m not complaining. It turned out gorgeous, but our stage is not very deep, so when we have these behemoth buildings in places where you expected space for movement, it’s a challenge to reblock and troubleshoot. Another challenge was out set crew made the port-a-potty too large to fit through the entrance opening. The set had to go back and cut it down by 66% so we could have the entrance we needed,” Harrison said.
The cast of Twelfth Night performed “Eyes of Another” during the Oustanding Musical Level 2 medley during the SLHSMTA ceremony on May 15. Harrison said the song sends a strong and important message about empathy that rounds out the entire production.
“This show is riddled with themes, like bullying, deception, expected social norms; however, the ending song [is] ‘Eyes of Another’ which talks about seeing the world through someone else’s eyes and walking in their shoes. It is a truly joyous ending and really appropriate for the political times. My bass guitarist said that this was the ‘show he didn’t know he needed,’” Harrison said.
