Last Week, 8th grade middle school students from Abbott performed their annual winter musical at the High School on Friday, February 26th and Saturday, February 27th.

Once On This Island follows the story of a young girl named Ti Moune, whose life was saved by the Gods. Ti Moune’s path changed when a boy named Daniel from the fancy Grand Homme side of the Island, got severely injured in a car crash. Ti Moune and her mother nursed the boy back to health, but in the midst of helping him, the young girl started to catch feelings for him. After Daniel returned to his home, Ti Moune visited him often and the two fell in love. However, their love was challenged after Ti Moune learned about Daniel’s engagement to Andrea, a snooty but well intended lady.

As the cast rehearsed, Spectrum decided to sit down with some of the cast and interview the actors about their parts, fellow cast members, and directors. The first person interviewed was Kendra Williams (8th grade). Kendra stars as the role of Ti Moune. When asked about her experience on playing the lead role Kendra says “There’s a lot of pressure, but it’s not that bad. Once you get all of your lines memorized and once you know what you’re doing it’s not that bad.”

To get a comparison of previous shows, the next to be interviewed was a group of boys who acted in both last year’s play and this year’s. Raj Mulherkar, Tanmay Deshmukh, Jarrett Hazleton, Joshua Turner, and Parker Williams reflected on their past show, and expressed their feelings towards their current show. Joshua Turner  who plays  Tonton said: “Being in a musical with not only people, but with your friends makes those friendships stronger and helps you perform better.”

Another prominent student was Stephanie Kosmolski (8th grader) who plays Andrea, the fiancee to Daniel and main antagonist of the show. Stephanie commented on her favorite part of playing Andrea by saying “I like how I get to act towards my best friend Kendra Williams, we’re really good together, but now seeing us as enemies it’s kinda fun.”

Aside from students involved in the play this year, Spectrum decided to reach out to students who were just involved in Abbott’s most previous Abbott musical, Seussical. Freshman Nicole Millerman, who starred in last years play reflects on the time she spent working with the other students and her directors. She says “Give 150%, don’t be shy, and enjoy every moment”

Spectrum writers attended the musical and enjoyed their time. The creative set and colorful lighting added to the tropical theme displayed throughout the production, and the costumes were spectacular with sharp whites for the Grand Hommes and colorful prints for the native Villagers. Overall the performance was well done and well received all around, Spectrum would like to give a big congrats to the cast and crew and wish them luck with next year’s Abbott Musical.