Thunderbird High School’s musical, Freaky Friday, was a hit. The production was shown at the auditorium on Feb. 27, Feb. 28, and March first.
In the first act, the musical starts off by introducing Ellie Blake, played by Sienna Meyer, junior, and her mother Katherine Blake, played by Meredith Arends, junior, who have some connection issues. The audience learns that the mother is remarrying, and the daughter is clearly frustrated, given that she is still grieving the loss of her father.
Ellie wants to go to a school event with her friends, but Kathrine doesn’t allow it. The event is a school tradition, with the main goal to be finding certain objects. While Ellie and Katherine were arguing about whether or not Ellie should be allowed to enter the event. While all of this was happening, Ellie was holding an hourglass, and then Kathrine grabbed the hourglass, and the two began fighting over it, which led to the hourglass being broken. All of a sudden, Katherine’s consciousness is in Ellie’s body, and Ellie’s consciousness is in Katherine’s body.
While being confused about this switch, Ellie realizes that she needs to go to school, and Katherine has to go to work. A reporter named Danielle, who is played by Emily Hull, junior, is interviewing Katherine about her wedding, and starts questioning her planning it, however; since Ellie is now speaking for Katherine, given their situation, she has zero idea of what she is talking about, so she starts saying things that the real Katherine would not. Her assistant, Torrey, Leeta Jo Mathews, senior, saves the situation by giving them the appropriate answers.
The next scene takes place at Ellie’s high school. Katherine, who is now Ellie, sees two people coming up to her that are Ellie’s friends, Gretchen, Ruby German, junior, and Hannah, Sarah Bowler, senior. Katherine doesn’t act how Ellie normally would, and her friends are confused, but they couldn’t get an answer because the bell had rung. Walking to her class, Katherine is stopped by Ellie’s first hour teacher, who stops her and mentions that she has been missing too much school, therefore, a parent-teacher conference will be needed.
During the parent-teacher conference, the onlookers are introduced to the school counselor, Dr. Erhin, played by Weston Roberts, sophomore; the English teacher, Mrs. Luckenbill, played by Emily Hull, junior; and Ellie’s Spanish teacher, Senor O’Brian, played by Sebastian Matta, senior. As the counselor and teachers are trying to figure out why Ellie is skipping class, Kathrine and Ellie start arguing. Ellie is explaining to Katherine that she needs to attend school, and Katherine is telling Ellie that she isn’t doing a good job as a parent. Unaware of the switch, Dr. Erhin, Mrs. Luckenbill, and Senior O’Brian are bewildered.
Hours go by since the conference, and Ellie and Katherine are getting frustrated that they aren’t in their own body, even though they had tried to go back using an hourglass, which was an object from the hunt. Saddened by this result, a heartwarming scene starts up with Ellie and Katherine singing a duet, “Today and Ev’ry Day”. Finally understanding and accepting each other, Ellie and Katherine are now back into their normal bodies.
The musical was well portrayed and really put together. The fast-changing and quick set changes really brought up the mood. Weston Roberts, sophomore, was very pleased with how the musical came and emphasizes that the “cast and crew really gave it [their] all. Along with the upbeat music portions. Everybody that had helped with the making of Freaky Friday did an amazing job of making this musical feel very alive and much like the original. Junior at Thunderbird high school, Alma Jacobson, stage manager, states that she was “very satisfied with how the production came out,” and was “incredibly proud of everyone involved”.
