Smith-Cotton theater students to blend ancient Egypt with modern music in ‘Aida'

No one can say Smith-Cotton theater students don’t get challenged. In “Aida,” the school’s first musical since “Seussical” in March 2010, singers not only have to keep up with the fast-paced pop-rock music played by their fellow students, but they have to do so without visual cues from a pit orchestra director.

Although the Heckart Performing Arts Center is a spectacular venue, one thing it lacks is an orchestra pit. “Aida” director Teri Turner, vocal music director Christopher Kindle and orchestra director Brian Kloppenburg found a great solution for the audience: The musicians are positioned at the back of the stage, atop a platform constructed by theater dad Bill Westphal, a veteran set builder.

So the music sounds great in the seats. The problem is that the actors can’t look into an orchestra pit to get their cues.

“Our biggest challenge with putting the pit on stage is that the students wouldn’t be able to see Mr. Kloppenburg conduct and cue them,” said Turner, in her first year at the high school after two years of directing plays at S-C Junior High. “So students have just spent a lot of time finding their tempo, listening to their CD and getting comfortable and adjusted to each other.”

“It is very hard because you have to listen,” said junior Tristin Baro, who plays male lead Radames, the Egyptian army commander. “You can’t just look down and see someone say ‘It’s time to go.’ ”

Said freshman Maggie Beard, who plays Nubian princess Aida: “You have to count the drum beats in your head, while still staying in character.”

Turner and Kindle chose “Aida” because they wanted something fun and fresh. Although the Verdi opera dates back to the 19th century, the spin-off musical — with songs by Elton John and Tim Rice — premiered in 2000.

“We respect the classics, but we wanted to do something more edgy and contemporary,” Turner said. “This is a show we both really wanted to do. The music is by Elton John, and we thought this would be something different.”

While the musical is modern, the plot is as old as they come. Set in ancient Egypt, “Aida” is a “Romeo and Juliet”-style yarn of star-crossed lovers. But Turner is quick to point out that the Shakespeare comparisons end there.

“I tell people it’s a modern day ‘Romeo and Juliet’ but by no means does it have weird language,” she said.

Turner outlined the plot: “Radames is the captain of the Egyptian army. They’re at war with Nubia. They capture a bunch of Nubian women, not realizing they captured the Nubian princess, Aida. (Radames and Aida) start to fall for each other, and Aida becomes conflicted. Radames is betrothed to the Egyptian princess (played by Maggie’s sister, junior Madison Beard), so there’s a love triangle there.”

Of Radames, Baro said: “He’s sort of like a teenager. He fights with his father, he doesn’t want to be with a girl, he just wants to do his own thing. He’s like an adult teenager.”

In addition to the challenges of picking up their music cues, students are also learning some good, old-fashioned acting skills.

“He’s a commander of an army and I’m not that kind of person,” Baro said. “I’m all over the place and he’s very much a stand-still, stop-fidgeting guy. So that’s the hardest thing.”

Maggie Beard, who said she has enjoyed learning from the older students in her first high school production, also finds herself getting serious for her complex role as Aida, who is caught between two worlds in more ways than one. She’s both a princess and a slave, and she loves both her homeland of Nubia and the Egyptian commander.

“It’s kind of a change,” Beard said. “She’s more of a regal person, so you have to have that presence. But it’s a fun character — she was the princess, but she’s captured and she becomes a slave.”

While Turner and Kindle are crossing their fingers that “Aida” will be a buzzworthy show in the community throughout the weekend, Beard noted that at least a few seats will certainly be filled.

“A lot of my family had heard of it, and they were excited when they heard we were doing it,” she said. “And I’ve learned to like it too.”