Clay teachers get involved in school musical

Story by Emmaline Colvin
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Mrs. Susie tries to weave her way through a sea of cast and crew members on a busy stage. It’s the week of the musical, and she is getting ready to talk with Mr. Snyder and Mr. Lowe to finalize the last few details.

There are three teachers involved in Clay’s musical- Mrs. Susie, Mr. Snyder and Mr. Lowe.  Mrs. Susie is like a superhero. She directs and musical directs the musical, oversees the whole show, is a choir teacher, and is a mom to a young boy! She put  over a hundred hours into this year’s musical, Willy Wonka Jr.

“I love musicals and I wanted to share that love by giving the students at Clay the opportunity to be involved in a musical,” said Mrs. Susie.  

Mrs. Susie has been in several musicals, on stage and off.  She was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz at Glendale High School, Little Red Riding Hood in Little Red Riding Hood at Springfield Regional Opera in Missouri, and Thumbelina in Tiny Thumbelina, at MSU Opera Workshop. She also music directed A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Glendale High School, and was Stage Manager for a play called The Nerd.

Mr. Snyder, the Auditorium Director of this year’s musical has also had prior experience.  This was his 5th year helping out with musicals at Clay.

“I have played clarinet in the pit orchestra in my high school musical - we had live music during the show and it was an excellent experience. I forget the show, unfortunately,” Mr. Snyder said.

As far as Mr. Lowe goes with theatre experience, he definitely has some.  He was Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in high school, and directed a play when he taught in high school.  He even helped with elementary musicals when he was a media specialist. In the musicals at Clay, he assistant directs.

It takes a lot of time to pull off a school musical.  Each teacher puts in countless hours, especially during tech week, the week of the musical.

“Tech week is very long but productive!” Mr. Lowe said.  Mr. Snyder said it is simply stressful, and Mrs. Susie said it was fun, exciting, and exhausting.

The teachers involved in the musical also meet all throughout the process.      


“Mr. Lowe and I meet a couple times during the summer to plan the sets.  Then, we also meet throughout the musical process as needed. Mr. Snyder and I meet the week before tech week to go through the cues,” Mrs. Susie said.

Though the musical is a lot of work, all the teachers agree that it is rewarding.  They also agree that the school musical is both exciting and exhausting!

“There is a lot of moving parts that go on with the musical. Coordinating set and scene changes with music, lights, and mics is always difficult to do, but we get always get it done with the hard work of students participating on and off stage,” Mr. Snyder said.