“Bye Bye Birdie” opens on Thursday night. Here’s a look at some of the people who have been working behind the scenes to bring this production to life.

Junior Paige Gordon 

Junior Paige Gordon plays Mrs. MacAfee in this year’s production of Bye Bye Birdie  While part of the cast, Gordon is also part of the crew and is one of the four thespian officers, serving as Historian.

What does your schedule look like?
“I’m very busy with everything. I’m sometimes here until 8 p.m.. I go from show choir to cast to then crew to something else. It’s a lot of knowing how to manage my time well and knowing that I want to do certain things and other people rely on me for things, so I still need to do it.”

What other activities take up your time?
“I’m in Debtones, I run choreography with Claire Lollar, and I participate in Best Buddies. I also play softball and I babysit.”

Do you have a preference for Cast or Crew?
“I usually would say cast more because I’ve done it longer, but I truly enjoy both of them”

What role do you hold in Crew?
“I do anything. I am currently painting a lot. I also help with the power tools and building the sets, but I float around wherever they need me.”

What does your role of Historian look like?
“It’s a lot of knowing who people are and knowing what they’re doing. So, if someone needs help with something or if they have issues with the Thespian Society, I help them with that. It’s also a lot of maintenance throughout the department of knowing what we have and what we need and keeping up with all of that.”

What advice would you give to somebody who is interested in taking that role next year?
“Do it! It’s really fun. You get to be very close to people. I would say try to keep an open, personable mind because you do talk to so many people and you have to be very friendly a lot of the time.”

Senior Lillian Garcia

Senior Lillian Garcia is part of the crew for the production of Bye Bye Birdie and is in charge of the costumes.

How long have you been in Crew and how long have you been specifically in the costume department?
“I’ve been in Crew since my freshman year and I’ve been doing costumes for the past two years and I love it.”

Where do you get the costumes?
“We have a costume closet for the theater that has all of the costumes from past productions, but if we don’t have anything, we can either share the closet with the show choir, as long as we ask permission, and we can take from them, or we go to Goodwill and buy clothes there.”

What does the process of picking out the costumes look like?
“I just stand in the costume room we have in silence and look at what we have. It helps me try to piece together things in my own mind.”

Who else helps you with the costume process?
“Ms. Torrey has helped me so much when I’m out [sick] or if I can’t help, she will pretty much do everything that she can to help me and pick out costumes for people to try on and just have me do the rest when I get back.”

What is your favorite part about doing costumes?
“Honestly just seeing my vision for the outfits come to life and being able to see the costumes on the people. It’s just nice.”

What are some ways that people could get involved in the costume department?
“Just talking to Ms. Torrey personally, asking her about what her ideas are, seeing her pinterest board, looking up things about the show to get the basic ideas helps a lot, and doing research over the show and the time periods.”

How has the costume department grown with your help?
“In the past people didn’t really care about it, so only Ms. Torrey did the costumes. I guess in a way, it didn’t really improve specifically for the show, but more for Ms. Torrey because now it’s not all put on her.”

What other department opportunities are there in Crew?
“There’s the officers who are the publicity officers, who do the posters around the school, and then there’s the historian who takes notes, and then there’s the actor representative and the crew representative. There’s the crew head positions, but if you don’t want to be a crew head or you don’t want to be on the running crew, the actual club itself can help you do whatever you want. You can do things like painting and building. It’s really fun.”

Senior Leila Mohammed

Senior Leila Mohammed is one of four Thespian Society Officers, serving as Actor Representative. 

 What does your role of Actor Representative look like?
“I keep Ms. Torrey in the loop with all the actors and students in the theater department. I’m the person to go to with any questions about the productions. I update the bulletin board and calendar in the hallway by the theater doors. I really move around a lot in the communication area.”

What advice would you give someone interested in taking over the role of Actor Representative next year?
“Just be kind to everyone in the theater department, stay connected with everyone, and be able to stay organized and be willing to connect with everyone or be there for someone. I feel like a lot of the time an Actor Representative is just a person you know you can rely on for questions or if you need help with something that relates to theater.”

What does your schedule look like?
“In the fall, I don’t really do too much because I don’t participate in the musicals, but during the One Acts and the spring production I have rehearsals after school typically until 5 p.m. Over the summer we cleaned up the tech shop and we updated the bulletin board with new information about the musical and we’ll be updating it again when the One Acts and the spring play come around.”

What can people do to get involved in the theater department?
“Just show up. Anybody can join the Crew, and you learn what you’re doing while you’re there, so you don’t have to worry about not having experience. You could just show up and everything will be taught to you. When it comes to cast, you have to audition but we also have a handful of classes that you could take next semester. For the upcoming One Acts you’ll have to audition, so Crew is probably the easiest to join.”

What upcoming opportunities are there to get students interested in the Center Grove Theater Department?
“We have “Bye Bye Birdie” on Oct. 31, Nov. 2, and Nov. 3, so students could come see the musical. It’s beautiful; everyone’s worked really hard on it and it looks great. We also have the One Acts coming up around wintertime. There’s about a week-long break between “Bye Bye Birdie” shows and the One Act rehearsals. Juniors and seniors get the chance to either choose or write a One Act and direct. You could be a stage manager, which is more crew based. You can also help out in the booth.”

What advice would you give to someone interested in trying out for acting or directing in one of the One Acts?
“For acting, come prepared with a minute long monologue and have it as memorized as you can and be confident. It’s okay if you don’t make it because there’s still some crew opportunities. When it comes to directing, only juniors and seniors are able to direct, and you have to meet certain requirements like having taken specific theater classes.”

Senior Ash Rice

Senior Ash Rice is an experienced member of the crew and holds the Thespian Officer title of Publicity Officer.

How long have you been a part of Crew?
“I’ve been participating in the crew since seventh grade at Middle School North. I didn’t do Crew for “Freaky Friday,” which was the show during my freshman year, but after that point, I’ve participated in every show, even if I was in the cast.”

What do you do in Crew?
“I do a lot of set design; I build the sets and design them. There’s been points where I help with costumes. I sometimes do props and things like that.” 

What are some ways that people could get involved in Crew?
“Just show up. There’s not a lot of requirements to join the crew. You just have to be a respectful human and show up. Something I really encourage is asking what you can do and respecting the people you’re working with, respecting Ms. Torrey and [Technical Director] Zach [Alexander].”

What does your role as Publicity Officer look like?
“I’m in charge of basically everything to do with publicity that you could think of, so a lot of marketing. I run the Instagram page. I’ve been having phone problems recently but I try to post on it weekly, but I also think ahead a lot. I have to think about pictures, marketing, who we might have to reach out to. I think about possible events that we are going to hold in the theater department.”

What advice would you give to someone who is interested in taking over the position of Publicity Officer?
“Just be ready to work. I feel like I’m doing more than the next publicity officer will but that’s just the position I put myself in. I think the main thing they’ll have to prepare for is getting a schedule and keeping on top of that schedule.”

Junior Claire Lollar

Junior Claire Lollar is playing Kim MacAfee in”Bye Bye Birdie” and has taken the role of choreographing some of the numbers in the show, including “One Last Kiss” and “Hundred Ways Ballet.” 

What got you interested in choreographing?
“I’ve been a dancer since I was little, so I just find it interesting how the teachers, at least that I’ve seen in my career, have put together different dances or the different numbers that we’ve done in the past. I just think it’s really interesting how they put it together, so it was a really cool thing to be able to show that in this show.”

How long have you been choreographing?
“I actually haven’t been choreographing for a long time. I’ve been dancing for 16 years, and the first time I actually choreographed something was a few years ago. I choreographed for one of my teachers’ daughters. I choreographed a dance for her talent show and that’s what really got me started. I’ve done a few other projects since then.”

Who has helped you get to where you are?
“Definitely all my past dance teachers, especially the ones I have currently since I’ve had them since I was in elementary school. They really push me to become a better dancer, and they’ve taught me so much. Also, being in the position of assistant dance captain for show choir has helped me become a better teacher, especially with choreography.”

What advice would you give to someone who wants to be an assistant dance captain?
“You need to show that you can lead, even if you’re not the best at teaching. If you start with small groups of people, it makes a huge difference when you’re trying to audition, especially because then for the audition, you’ll have to lead the whole choir. Starting with smaller groups like this for the musical makes it much easier to teach and clean everything within the choreography.”

Have you done any choreographing other than this for Bye Bye Birdie?
“Yes. So I did the talent show for my teacher’s daughter and then at the Fall Fest show this year I choreographed a tap number Ethan Wood and I did while someone was singing, so that was my first big project that I actually presented on stage, and then some of the numbers in this show.”

Who is your biggest inspiration when it comes to choreographing?
“I’d say one of my biggest inspirations is our choreographer for Sound System, April James. She is so amazing, and I have just taken a lot of inspiration from her and how she choreographs and how she teaches. She’s such an amazing role model, and she leads with such great purpose and such grace. I just really love that and so it really helped me to get into choreography.”

What’s your favorite thing that you’ve choreographed?
“My favorite thing that I’ve choreographed is either the tap number that Ethan and I did for Fall Fest or the One Hundred Ways Ballet for “Bye Bye Birdie.” It was one of the first things where I was given an outline and then I just created something within those guidelines and it came out really well. I’m very excited about it.”

What’s your favorite thing about dancing?
“My favorite thing about dancing is probably that you can just express your creativity through it and you get to try different things. Even if it doesn’t look as good as you want it to, you can always experiment and change things. It’s all about the movement of your body, and it’s all up to your interpretation sometimes, especially when its like specific choreography and it has to look the same, but I also like that you can still experiment and make new things.”