SLHSMTA School Highlights: Nerinx Hall
Nominated For Outstanding Musical Level 1
Written by 2025 SLHSMTA Student Reporter, Mary Corkery
For Nerinx Hall High School, Beauty and the Beast blended together tradition and progress in a way that perfectly fit their program.
An all-girls Catholic school located in Webster Groves, Nerinx Hall celebrated its 100th year in 2024. When choosing their fall musical, which was staged Oct. 10-13, director Julie Lanier wanted to acknowledge the school’s milestone.
“We chose to open our season with Disney’s Beauty and the Beast because our school was celebrating our Centennial and wanted to choose a show that we had done in the past to represent and celebrate great moments within the school’s legacy. We chose a brand new piece for our spring musical (Between the Lines) to show how we are moving towards a bright future,” Lanier said.
While the musical symbolically represents Nerinx’s history, the students also embody the school’s values through their work ethic. To Lanier, her performers and technicians are able to strike an important balance between dedication and enthusiasm, managing to stay committed to their craft while also branching out to other activities throughout the school.
“One of our mottos at Nerinx is that the students can do difficult things. Almost every student in our productions (cast / crew / house management) is either in the National Honors Society, our House of Studies program, multiple honors classes, studio dancers, or maintain leadership roles within our school government, clubs, and house system,” Lanier said. “Yet, they show up– every rehearsal– prepared and ready to work. But they also know how to have fun– which is the whole point of this in the first place: to be challenged, work hard, learn new skills, and have fun.”
Lanier opted for a traditional interpretation of Beauty and the Beast, honoring the show’s history as a classic. With her choice, she hoped to illuminate the original message to expect the unexpected.
“I think one of the main themes that this show promotes is that things are not always what they seem– everyone struggles in ways that we can’t always see. Love can be found in the least obvious of scenarios and places,” Lanier said.
In order to sell the fairytale illusion, Lanier made sure that love wasn’t the only thing hiding in plain sight.
“In every show I direct, it’s important that the scenic transitions flow as part of the show– I choreograph our transitions to the music (sometimes in full light), using mostly actors in costume when I can, in order to keep the audience engaged and within the world of the play. It’s a pet peeve of mine when the set transitions are staged as a separate piece. Like, here’s the blackout– there’s the poor stage crew working in silence to get the next scene set up. I like my audiences to think that those shifts are part of the story. Having inanimate objects as characters, this was an easy feat to accomplish. It made sense within the world,” Lanier said.
The cast of Beauty and the Beast performed part of the number “Be Our Guest” during the Outstanding Musical Level 1 medley during the St. Louis High School Musical Theater Awards ceremony on May 15. Lanier was also nominated for Outstand Direction, and Kyle Yorg was nominated for Outstanding Faculty Technical Execution.
