Here is our new big upcoming school event, the ‘CATS’ musical. The CATS musical was one of the biggest musicals around the world, and it is still receiving a lot of attention from the audiences. This time, our school NLCS Jeju decided to perform this amazing piece in our school!
^ Chorus practising the musical numbers
The musical team is saying that this musical CATS will be a good opportunity to work professionally in the industry of the Performing arts. Not only for the performers, the piece will make the audience gain an appreciation for musicals and the sense of community the performers are creating on the stage.
^ Dance chorus practising ‘The Rum Tum Tugger’
The musical CATS has songs of attractive melodies that everyone can enjoy, and as well as a professional dancing choreography with characterisation. All the characters in the musical are ‘cats’, and the performers show the characteristics of the cats throughout their performances. Here are some more aspects between the CATS musical and the past performed musicals, mentioned from year 10 main dance performer Shirley.
“Since we do not use any dialogues, characterisation in singing and dancing is the best way to make the musical into a much more immersive performance. Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Taylor guided us through this characterisation and taught us ‘how to act like a cat’, which was quite challenging at first. We’re trying to apply this in our singing as well.”
Meanwhile, the costumes and stages for the musical are prepared by adding some features of NLCS’s own interpretation, while still following the original ideas. “We decided to stick closely to the original costumes in the West production.” Said Ms. Smith, who is taking the responsibility of the whole musical and especially the dance piece. Ms. Smith is also preparing different coloured unitards with fur accessories depending on each performer’s cat character, which will highlight each cat’s characteristics.
Ms. Taylor also commented about the stage design. “The stage is reinvented to be a street alley behind an old theatre. We will have a very large construction on the stage which creates different levels of entrance and exit for the performers, and also some trampolines and a slide. We have established a confident tech team that is working hard on the production elements of the performance.”
The main storyline of the cats are like this: The Jellicle Cats come out to play on one special night of the year, the Jellicle Ball. One by one, they tell their stories to their leader, Old Deuteronomy, to be selected from him and go to The Heaviside Layer where the cats can be reborn into a new life.
With much appreciation and anticipation for the upcoming musical CATS, here are some quotes from the performers and audiences talking about their opinions and efforts toward the musical!
Hyunseung Chloris Kim
“This Cats production has a lot to offer, not just because of the outstanding cast but also because of the complex lighting, stage designs, and over 25 musical numbers. Cats, as the title indicates, is a dance musical about cats – I hope that when the audience sees us on stage, they recognise the effort we put into presenting these characters.”
Yunseo Shirley Jang
“Last year’s musical was so memorable because of the amount of support we received from the audience. We could literally feel their enjoyment on each night of the show, and would be thrilled to bring back this connection between our cast and audience again this year. Audience, all you have to do is give us a big round of applause at the beginning and end of each song, take countless photos of us, and just simply enjoy our performance. We, as performers, look forward to delivering you the outcome of our endless endeavours.”
Naeun (Emily) Kim
“Our school has presented very high-quality and impressive musicals so far. So I have high expectations for this musical as well. In particular, I’m looking forward to seeing how it differs from the original musical or what similarities there are.”
The musical will be performed on 29th and 30th of November, and 1st of December in the PAC. Please look for the upcoming notices, and enjoy the big performance that will definitely hit your heart!
Soyeon (Eunice) Yoon
Content Creator
