LMS To Stage “Seussical”

LMS To Stage “Seussical” “Seussical”

BY FRANCINE FULTON

“There are so many shows out there, but they have heavy content. This is light and colorful and focuses on celebrating the importance of every individual,” said Karen Guidas-Sidorick, Lionville Middle School (LMS) Musical Theater drama director of this year’s spring show, “Seussical.” Elaborating on why she and music director Stephanie Reimers chose the musical, Guidas-Sidorick said, “We thought it was a beautiful story.”

“Seussical” will be staged at LMS, 550 W. Uwchlan Ave., Exton, on Friday and Saturday, March 11 at 12, at 7 p.m. There will also be a Sunday matinee on March 13 at 2 p.m.

“Seussical” is based on the well-known characters of Dr. Seuss, including Horton the Elephant, who discovers a speck of dust that contains tiny people called the Whos. Horton must protect that Whos and take care of an egg abandoned by Gertrude McFuzz. Themes of the play include friendship, loyalty, family and community.

“This is the full-length Broadway production. We do not do a junior edition,” noted Guidas-Sidorick.

Guidas-Sidorick pointed out that the scheduled musical at LMS in 2020 - “High School Musical on Stage!” - was canceled the day before opening night, when all in-person learning was shut down in March. “That show just went away; we didn’t break down the set until September,” she said. “When we were cleared to go back in, the eighth-graders had moved on to high school.”

In 2021, students in the LMS Musical Theater group met regularly on The cast of “Seussical” includes (back, from left) Kasyap Tumuluri as the Cat in the Hat, Locke Starling as Horton the Elephant, Christian Giancaterino as JoJo, (front) Rory Garry as Thing 1 and Shruti Venkatesan as Thing 2.

Guidas-Sidorick. “We were able to keep our theater family together.”

She said that the pandemic has added some challenges to staging this year’s show. “For the first month of the rehearsals, COVID surged again, and we were navigating a large number of absences in January because of five-day quarantines,” explained Guidas-Sidorick. “The other thing is this year, because we did not have our formal show last year, we don’t have any veteran ... eighth-graders.”

However, she added, high school students return each year to LMS to help with the production. “What’s awesome about our little family is we have high-schoolers who come to do their graduation project with us, and they come back … long after their graduation projects are done,” said Guidas-Sidorick. “The high-schoolers want to be here. They are here because this is their home.”

Guidas-Sidorick encourages the community to attend an upcoming performance. “They put on a show that rivals other age groups, and hopefully the community will enjoy it,” she stated. “We have fun, and we are a team. There is a huge sense of pride when they (perform).”

Tickets to “Seussical” will be sold at the door. Tickets are also available to purchase in advance at www.dasd.org/LMS.

Zoom, where they learned about theater and Broadway actors and practiced improv. Meetings culminated in the production of an online musical revue that featured popular numbers from musical theater. “We kept (the students) connected,” said

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