Students from Hollenbeck Middle School get on a bus every day after school that drops them off at FHN for drama practice. They have been casted a role in the production of Beauty and the Beast that will take place at FHN on April 7, 8 and 9. Kim Sulzner, the drama teacher putting on the play, said that everyone had a fair chance to get any role and that no lead parts were reserved for the older kids.

“We auditioned it just like any other show, so I didn’t preserve a middle school or high school part so some of the high schoolers were kind of worried about that,” Sulzner said. “They said ‘Wait! You’re going to give my part to a middle schooler?’”

At the end of last year, Sulzner was told that she would be running both the high school and the middle school drama programs. She knew it would be too hard to run four plays in one year, so she worked it out so that one play could be combined.  A performance at the high school level is a much bigger production than at middle school level, so the middle schoolers are are being challenged. Many are enjoying the experience that is new to them.

“Babette is a really open character, I’m not very open, and she is so I’m excited to play her,” seventh grader from Hollenbeck Zoe Meier said.

The middle school students so far have received their costumes, memorized lines and learned dances like the high schoolers, and they have been able to explore more than they were before. Meier said that she has been able to learn more independence because of the greater number of people at the high school. Olivia Beyers is in sixth grade, and she is excited for the performance; she is playing the part of a towns person and she is in the local chorus.

“I just think it’s really cool that [the middle schoolers] have stepped up, and watching the high school kids help them and how much they’ve grown,” Sulzner said. “Each person brings their own dynamic, and to watch the two groups interact is really cool.”