Spring Musical

Spring Musical: Mamma Mia!

by Elliott Ernster ’22

This past spring, we performed three nights of the jukebox, romantic comedy musical, Mamma Mia! The production soundtrack is exclusively songs by the Swedish pop group ABBA, and the songs—with their diverse topics—are cleverly sequenced into a coherent story about 20-year-old Sophie, and her experiences, as she attempts to figure out which of three men is her true father.

I played the role of Bill Austin, one of the three potential true fathers. Bill is a hard-nosed, rough and tough adventurer who had visited the Greek isle (on which Sophie gets married) twenty-one years prior with Donna, Sophie’s mother. The two other potential fathers, Sam Carmichael (played by Lucas Oland ’22) and Harry Bright (played by Harrison Whitfill ’24) shared similar experiences with Donna in the past, which is the basis for the plot of the show.

PCDS happened to be one of three high schools in Arizona to choose Mamma Mia! as their spring musical, alongside Chaparral and Saguaro High Schools. PCDS’s unique stagecraft class built our production set from top to bottom, creating a semi-circular courtyard that served as the villa, the wedding venue, etc. The walls were painted to give the appearance of bougainvilleas. And, on either side of the upstage opening, there were swinging doors that could be visible or invisible to our audience, depending on the setting of each scene. Behind the stage right wall housed our live orchestra. Director Keith Burns made the decision to have our own PCDS musicians play the soundtrack live rather than settle for a pre-recorded soundtrack. This gave an especially sweet, melodic glow to the rather emotional songs like, “Thank You for the Music” and an authentic, raucous, party-like jive to the upbeat songs like “Waterloo,” which closed out every one of our shows accompanied by a standing ovation. Special thanks to Charlie Nassar ’22 on the drums, Reno Lock and Ridge Hall ’23 on guitar (Ridge happened to pick up the instrument on the fly!), Lali Breen, Tyler Tam ’23, and our band director/conductor Mr. Nathan Botts.

We could not have costumed the largest official cast in the history of PCDS productions without the help of our “Drama Mamas”—our affectionate name for all our helpful moms out there. And, we could not have sung so heartily and healthily without the stellar coaching of our Vocal Director Ms. Kara Harris.

Elliott Ernster ’22, Annika Almquist ’22

Without a doubt, we could not have acted at such a high level as to be nominated for ASU Gammage awards without the amazing experience and guidance from Mr. Keith Burns. Mr. Burns also deserves huge praise for having taught the stagecraft class and for taking on the lighting duties of the entire show with only minimal experience. As a whole, I consider Mamma Mia! to have been my personal favorite of the four musicals of which I’ve been a part. My final and parting thanks to everyone who attended the performances. We could not have made those evenings so magical without our engaged audiences. n

PCDS’s spring production of Mamma Mia! received the following ASU Gammage Award nominations: Nora Palermo ’24 for Best Supporting Actress and Stagecraft Class for Best Set

From left: Siena Liljegren ’22; Annika Almquist ’22, Jason Lin ’24; Lucas Oland ’22; Elliott Ernster ’22, Sai Vadnerkar ’22

Cast members at the Gammage Awards: Siena Liljegren ’22, Nora Palermo ’24, Sai Vadnerkar ’22, Annika Almquist ’22, Harrison Whitfill ’24, Lucas Oland ’22, Elliott Ernster ’22, Director Keith Burns