By: Kaya McDonald

The curtains open.

The music begins. 

An eerie chill flows through your bones like frozen electricity.

Choir Director Brian Keiffer chooses more exciting and upbeat productions, “He loves the big and flashy, you know – he did Hairspray and Guys and Dolls—whereas I like to do things that have a little bit more of a dramatic nature to them,” Amy Sima Dirham, Director of the Arts said. “So I like to find something that’s going to compliment what we’ve done in the past.” 

Every play chosen by the directors at GlenOak High-School is selected with purpose. This year, Dirham chose Phantom of the Opera, a dramatic and dark musical.

According to Dirham, the two directors, Dirham and Kieffer, bounce back and forth each year on choosing the musical. She stated that she suggested the Phantom of the Opera, as she prefers to add a bit of dramatic contrast to the more flashy dramas that Kieffer chooses for the students to perform. 

The play is left to the directors to decide, but the students do have some say.

“We actually kind of like, collaborated as a group,” Vice President of International Thespian Society Maddie Scott said. “But we knew we wanted to do a very large musical, a lot of characters, a lot of people. But it was all up to Ms. Dirham, really.”

The executive decision to do Phantom was exciting for not only the student body but for the surrounding community as well.

“This is a really local way to see such an amazing musical,” Scott said. 

While such a classic musical is sure to bring in the surrounding community, some wonder if funding was an issue that needed to be worked around, and if Drama was concerned about insufficient funds. 

“We need to try to be aggressive with how we advertise,” said Dirham. 

Since Phantom of the Opera is such a widely known musical, there should be no problems selling tickets. According to Dirham, there are already people asking to purchase tickets, and sales haven’t even begun yet.