The History Society’s musical has been revised to a stage reading of the first act in early March, with the fully finished play set to happen next year. History Society president Kian Hamidzadeh was inspired to make a musical covering 200 years worth of history to prove that the History Society is not just a group of “nerds” who make presentations. “We’re high schoolers, high school is a time to make mistakes without big consequences. Let’s just take this risk,” Hamidzadeh said.
While working on the script with other History Society members, Hamidzadeh discovered that the script would not be in its best form by March. “We want to show you the nuances of history. That is, after all, the main core principle of the History Society,” Hamidzadeh said.
Because theater Dr. Julian Lazarus was working with his students to produce “The Wizard of Oz” during this time, it was hard to find anyone who had spare time to give to the production of the musical. “We have learned, over time, like, things we had to adjust. So, continuously, we are making adjustments in everything,” Hamidzadeh said.
With these challenges in mind, History Society members decided to find a middle-ground between the first idea they had and an entire musical in order to make the task more manageable. This was when it turned into a small stage reading of only the first act.
The first plan was to have something small during lunch in the commons or during Wootton’s Got Talent. When senior class president Noah Friedman said that 70 people for one performance was too many to handle, Hamidzadeh and other History Society members revisited the idea and decided to make a full-scale musical that would play out in the auditorium.
Dr. Lazarus kept Hamidzadeh from being overly ambitious with the musical so that the final product achieved was one that everyone could be proud of. “I love when students create new pieces of art, specifically when play writing is involved,” Dr. Lazarus said.
History Society club sponsor Jeffery Benya sees the progress that Hamidzadeh and the club as a whole are making with the musical and said that he thinks Hamidzadeh is on the right track. Benya himself has not had a big part in the production of the musical other than simply being a sponsor to the History Society. “They’re [History Society] very sincere in their desire to produce something cool,” Benya said.
Hamidzadeh stands by his choice of pushing the musical back by a year because he does not want to market an unfinished product as finished and disappoint everyone involved along with the audience that would see it. With the extra time, Hamidzadeh will keep working on the script to make it smoother and consider having at least one completely original song. “Instead of thinking on the short term, we’re now thinking on the long term,” Hamidzadeh said.
