At Brien McMahon High School, this year’s spring production will be quite different compared to past spring productions we’ve had.

This weekend the Drama Department at McMahon will be performing this year’s production Footloose! It is centered around “a boy from Chicago named Ren McCormack, and he comes from Chicago, (to) this hick town in Pennsylvania where everyone is very conservative, (and) very goldy,” said Aliana Aspesi.

Aliana Aspesi is currently a senior here at McMahon and plays a leading role, Ariel Moore in Footloose along with Zachary Young who plays Ren McCormack. 

Many may recognize this musical from the 1984 American musical film, Footloose. Aliana expressed, “Many people will recognize the music from when they were younger like, Holding out for a Hero, Footloose, I sing Footloose. Zach sings that. It’s also a contemporary musical about teens versus adults.”

Compared to last year’s production, Chicago, we’ll find the majority of music to be like 80s pop.

Bobbie Dropick, a student at McMahon who plays Ren’s Mother in the musical said, “This one (musical) is a lot more light-hearted. It’s very bright compared to last year. Where last year was a funny, dark musical about murder. This one is more about teenagers wanting to get to experience life and have fun with it.” 

Earlier this year there were major changes that happened to the Drama Department where they no longer had a Director for this year’s spring production. “This is a majority student-run production. The only adult who is constantly there is Ms. Z, our director and choreographer. But our music director is Laszlo Balazs and producer is Holly Robert,” said Aliana.

“We love our assistant directors as well, Sam and Alba. They’re amazing. I think everything worked out well in the end and I am proud of how far we’ve come,” said Bobbie.

Aliana expressed the same thing and how this production is very hands-on with the student body which can also be quite difficult.

“It’s very light-hearted, but also very deep and emotional. But in like all the right ways. So I think if you want to see very talented kids perform who are very ambitious. I think you should definitely go see,” said Aliana

Opening night for Footloose will be this Friday at 7:30 p.m. along with two shows on Saturday at 3 and 7:30 p.m. Students can buy tickets for $5 in the cafeteria during lunch shifts or click here.