The Francis Ford Coppola One-Act Marathon generally features
film directors who are crossing over into theater. But Michael
Aspinwall, the director of the musical “High School!”
said “(his) background is shady.”
Aspinwall graduated from UCLA in 2004 with a degree in theater
performance and is currently working on his masters degree in
theater education and critical studies. He was chosen to direct a
one-act because he had directed musicals professionally.
“No one else wanted to do the musical,” he said.
“High School!” is a political satire about four high
school students who let a standardized aptitude test ruin their
dreams for the future. Each student is unique: There is the nerd,
the player, the aspiring actress and the activist ““ who is
told she is “like a pretty Michael Moore.”
Their disappointing results (one is told he would be a good
haberdasher) inspire them to criticize corporate America for
crushing their individuality.
“No matter what happens, each individual has freedom of
choice and everything is only temporary,” Aspinwall said.
In the play, the students’ irrational overreactions to one
aptitude test can be excused because they’re only in high
school.
“The high school age is pivotal and impressionable,”
Aspinwall said. “It makes the premise really
believable.”
The play portrays the adult, business world through the eyes of
lively, idealistic teenagers. Their impression of adult America is
one filled with stodgy conservatives, while the play’s
characters are liberal.
“Conservatism doesn’t lend itself to art,”
Aspinwall said. “(One character) wants to be an actress, but
is held back by conservative ideals. There are a lot of opinions
under the guise of musical comedy.”
The actors, Sarah Girard, Courtney Bell, Sterling Sulieman and
Aleks Pevec agree that it is a good idea for theater and film to
express political opinions.
“It’s good that they can,” Bell said.
Aspinwall said it is not necessary to understand or agree with
the politics in order to enjoy the show, as there are happy musical
numbers.
Playwright Misha Alexeef, a graduate student, contacted Brett
Ryback, a third-year music student, about writing songs for
“High School!” Ryback, the composer/music director,
said there had been a lot flip-flopping about whether or not to
make the play a musical.
In one scene, Caitlin (Bell) sings about her torment and anguish
after discovering her parents made a donation to the “George
W. Bush Center for Men’s Cigar Smoking and Small Animal
Torture” at Yale.
Her song about becoming disillusioned with society is contrasted
with the cheerful synchronized dancing of the other actors. The
juxtaposition highlights the merge between politics, music and teen
angst.
“Musical theater is no longer the “˜42nd
Street’-type chorus line,” Ryback said. “No one
will stop and dance for dance’s sake.”
Instead, “High School!” uses music to enhance
emotions, rather than to tell the story in an operatic fashion.
“When the emotion being expressed goes beyond what we can
say, we sing, and beyond what we can sing, we dance,”
Aspinwall said.