Breonna Eggleston 

February 8, 2023 

Behind the scenes- tech for the musical  

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“a peak into the musicals inside jobs” 

Lights! Camera! Action! Sultan high school’s musical production has been put into action again for the first time in over 3 years. The classic “Beauty and the Beast” musical is now being acted out by students in the classes of 2023-2027, and along with them, their very own tech crew is working hard behind the scenes. Between moving sets, adjusting props, helping actors read lines, and sometimes even painting, the tech crew has many responsibilities, without them, things wouldn’t run so smoothly. Lucas Dominguez, the manager of tech says, “The best part of tech is being able to help the school out in such a large production.” Another tech worker, Ella Croshaw, says specifically her favorite part of tech is “The few times she was asked to stay behind and help paint sets with the other actors and workers.” Addy Roland says her favorite part of tech is definitely, “Seeing all of the actors costumes. Costume helper Brooke Jacksons’ favorite part of tech is, “Being a part of the play but not having to work in front of other people (audience)” Tech is a job of fun, to push others, make new friends, and help others exercise new roles. But it’s not always the most fun, there’s many times that its full of hardship and complications. “I’d say the worst part about tech is probably us sitting around like 70 percent of the time and only working like 10 percent.” Says Ella Croshaw, Lucas Dominguez adds on by saying his least favorite part about his job is, “Having to claim responsibility for people that aren’t being responsible” “But if I was asked to work in the musical again, I’d say yes, it’s pretty fun even if we sit around most of the time, I like the group that I work with and I’ll always remember all the silly conversations we’ve had backstage.” Tech is definitely a job of ups and downs, and it requires a lot of flexibility, but through the small moments of hardship, there is mainly large amounts of fun. Some moments that tech will always remember are the times when Lucas was walking around too much on his tired feet and tripped and almost fell on his face, or on Friday February 24th 2023, while performing the bench beauty and the beast went to sit on broke, right on stage, causing the audience to have a good laugh, or that one day Lucas went home sick and rehearsal was a complete disaster, curtains getting stuck on pipes on the ceiling, actors tripping over wires on the floor, sets almost falling over, microphones breaking, and people running back and forth across the stage, but in the midst of chaos, tech powered through and pushed the actors to be the best that they could be, at the end of that day everyone went home tired but proud, with a slight feeling of accomplishment, and that’s what the tech workers are here for, to power through the hard situations and set up the best performances an actor can perform. “Tech is the musicals support group.” On Saturday, February 25th 2023, In tears cast and tech members had preformed their last performance of “Beauty and the Beast.” The night ended with a celebration party at the Sifferman family’s house, there everyone cheered, danced, laughed, sang, and eve cried a little more together, no musical member will ever forget the memories that were made in this years musical “Beauty and the Beast.” 

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TNT Music Review 

By Cameron Campion 

Last time I wrote a music review, it was about the song Fallen Kingdom. Well, I’m back with a brand-new addition! I am writing about another song about Captain Sparklez, a famous YouTuber with almost 4 billion views on YouTube. He wrote a song called TNT on February 26th, 2011, which is a parody of Dynamite by Taio Cruz. The parody got well over 110 million views on YouTube. I interviewed V Sherman and asked them a few questions. I asked them if there was anything that they liked and if anything in the song sparked them. “Yes, I like TNT. TNT is very sparky, especially if you spark it right. It is very catchy; it has a nice tune, bass line and rhythm. Almost everyone can hum it. If I could, I would listen to the parody all day, 24/7. While I’m doing homework, while I’m eating food, and while I’m sleeping” Music notes are the building blocks to music. If you had some bad sounding music, you probably won’t listen to it. But TNT to V is a very good song (and I would agree!). This information then sparked another question. I asked V if they liked the original song. “I do not like the original song; it does not talk about pigs and swigs. It also doesn’t talk about Minecraft. I also think that the lyrics are better with the parody.” Lyrics are an important part to most music. If they aren’t good, who would listen to the song? And according to V, the song TNT has good lyrics, and yet again, I would agree. All in all, TNT has some pretty good lyrics along with some beats and rhythm. Both V and I really enjoy this song! V would rate this song 10/10. 

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Avatar: The Way of Water Movie Review 

By: Sarah Lor 

ASTONISHING, AMAZING, INCREDIBLE you name it. This 13 year wait since the first Avatar was released has left many people thrilled including me. I watched Avatar the Way of Water in theatres the day it was released, and I would pay to rewatch it again anytime. I’m not one to exaggerate but this movie is living rent free in my head now, it met my expectations in every possible way. The Way of Water is a 3 hour and 12-minute movie with a roller coaster of emotions from beginning to end. Currently the movie has 4.4-star rating online and will hopefully continue to get all the love it deserves. The Way of water is an epic science adventure film that tells a story about the Sully family and all the trouble that comes their way, the film shows all the great lengths the family would do to keep each other from the danger that awaits for them. Pandora home of the Na’vi is a place where no humans can enter into without wearing an oxygen mask due to so much carbon dioxide in its atmosphere, humans entering without protection can die as quickly as 4 minutes. Doesn’t that just seem so interesting? The Way of Water was directed by James Cameron whose made many big award-winning films such as The Terminator and The Titanic. If you’re looking for some entertainment and, in the mood, to get emotional The Way of Water should definitely be on your watchlist. Some fun facts about this movie is that Kate Winslet who played Ronal in this film, set the new world record among the acting industry for holding her breathe underwater a total of 7 minutes and 15 seconds when training underwater, beating Tom Cruises record of 6 minutes during his film for “ Mission: Impossible” Winslet quoted in an interview she did with Total Film Magazine “ I have the video of me resurfacing saying, ‘Am I dead? Have I died?” then questioning her time. She wasn’t intending to hold her breathe for 7 minutes, she just wanted to set a record itself. Even if you’re not interested, why won’t you give the movie a chance? I promise you won’t regret it. 

 

“Smile” (2022): Is making us all do the opposite.  

By Cecilia Young  

On the list of creepier, more recent horror films, sits Smile (2022) directed by Parker Flinn. The movie is based on the short film “Laura Hasn’t Slept” made by Flinn and uploaded to YouTube in 2020. The short film stars Caitlin Stasey as Laura Weaver, a young woman experiencing vivid, terrifying nightmares who seeks out a therapist who tries to get to the root of the problem, only for the sessions to reveal a horrifying truth. The 11-minute short was later adapted into a movie following the same plotline, only with another character. The later movie follows Rose Cotter, a psychiatrist who is working to relieve her inescapable childhood trauma, who finds herself helping a disturbed and scared young woman named Laura Weaver (an ode to “Laura Hasn’t Slept”), who is telling her she is being haunted by a spirit taking the form of random people and smiling at her. Laura rambles about what it says to her, only to then use pieces of a broken vase to kill herself in front of Rose. A shaken Dr Cotter is questioned by the police but has no rational explanation other than she was mentally ill. After seeing this traumatizing event, her life begins to unravel and the same happens to her. Desperate, she searches for answers. However, you will have to watch it to know how it ends. To get into the nitty gritty of this movie, I will start with a simple sentence. As seemingly silly this movie seems, it holds decent scares, and the story holds strong. It has distinctive characters, and a delightful cat named Mustache. However, regardless of the entire vibe of the scary creature thing that is bothering traumatized people, there is nothing to smile about. I made the poor mistake of going into watching this film thinking it would be silly and stupid and would make me laugh, but oh how wrong I was. This movie is creepy. It touches on some difficult and harsh subjects, and pairs it with a fear every person who experiences trauma responses has; to be labeled as crazy. I would have to say, for such a silly idea, this movie has a lot of deeper meaning and holds some valuable lessons.   

  

 

 

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