Everyone is a freshman as musical cast gathers

RALEIGH -- Rows of lockers lined the room. Youngsters whispered with old pals and scoped the sea of strangers for potential new friends. Seats were assigned.

The first rehearsal for Raleigh's "High School Musical" felt a lot like a first day of school.

Director Tim Bennett even laid a pop quiz on the cast in the first half-hour, calling on actress Mara Howard-Williams to sum up the theme of the show, adapted from the Disney Channel's hit movie.

Mara aced it.

"You can say it's about being truthful and honest, and the benefits that will come from that if you're honest with yourself," said Mara, who plays a musical thespian named Kelsi. She burst into relieved giggles when Bennett praised her answer.

"Yes, it's about being true to yourself," Bennett said. "And? What else?"

Seth Johnson, who plays a "skater dude" named Ripper, raised his hand.

"It's about accepting others," he said.

"Yes," said Bennett. "And what's the big song that everybody remembers? 'We're All in This Together.' And that is truly what the show is about."

"High School Musical" is the hottest ticket in town, with 11 performances on the Memorial Auditorium stage. Co-produced by N.C. Theatre and Broadway Series South, the nearly sold-out run comes with big expectations for elaborate production numbers, well-honed characters and dramatic moments of Jets-and-Sharks proportions -- all filtered through Disney's PG sweet-o-meter.

With just over three weeks until the April 25 opening, there was little time for orientation at Tuesday's five-hour rehearsal. Bennett and his creative team had much work to do with the 44 actors, most of them from area high schools.

Musical director Jay Wright took the helm first, leading the cast through diction and rhythm drills in N.C. Theatre's spacious North Raleigh rehearsal studio.

Don't close your jaw when you make an "ee" sound, Wright coached. Don't swallow consonants. Don't jut your chin out on high notes. Ditch the "pretty" musical frills.

As hours ticked by, the chorus of young voices grew stronger and more playful. Songs boomed through the warehouse walls and some actors danced as they sang.

In the final hour, the players gathered in the cliques featured in the Disney tale: jocks, thespians, cheerleaders, and skaters and goths. The "jock" actors -- whose characters form a basketball team -- headed to the green room, where several promptly confessed to a lack of athleticism. Robert Green, who plays the closet chef Zeke, pulled two thumb-sized "participation" trophies from his backpack, proof that he had at least attempted basketball. He and another jock had raided their sisters' collections of basketball paraphernalia.

But jocks and skaters and brainiacs are all in this together, and Bennett reassembled the company to share the fruits of their prerehearsal homework asssignment to research their characters.

Curtis Brown, who plays a skater named Skooter, had prepared a dramatic photo essay of his character's fictional life, including an affinity for painting and a failed romance with drama queen Sharpay.

"She said that I was the only one that ever saw her for her inner beauty, because I painted who she really was inside," he said. "Then she broke up with me."

Bennett, the director, beamed as he watched the classmates bond. His team was off to a winning start.