Rehearsal for this year’s musical, SpongeBob, is already in full swing. Auditions were held on Nov. 10-11 with rehearsals beginning a week before Thanksgiving. Performances will take place in the Lafayette Theater on Feb. 10-12 at 7 p.m and tickets will be available a few days prior to the performances for $8 in advance and $10 at the door.

Though the cast list was posted on Nov. 11, The role of Sandy Cheeks had to be recast due to a conflict with the person who was originally cast, resulting in auditions being held a second time. Senior Zoe Rundquist, who had not initially auditioned for SpongeBob, ended up landing the role. 

“I’ve pretty much been in any performance-based activity there is in the school like Vox Solus, Tuesday Night Rock Band, band, color guard and Winter Guard, so I guess theater was the last thing to check off the list. I’ve never done a musical before so I’m excited to see how it’s going to go,” Rundquist said. 

Initially hesitant to audition, Rundquist’s connection to the musical and the encouragement she received helped her make the decision to give it a try. 

“Initially me not signing up for it was partly because it was SpongeBob. I was one of those kids where my mom was like ‘if you watch it, you’re going to be stupid.’ I don’t really even watch it so I was kind of drawn away from it, but actually, my mom knows this professional orchestra violin player and he said he was playing pit for SpongeBob coincidentally and he was excited about it. That’s when my mom realized maybe this is not some stupid musical that we’re putting on,” she said. 

Rundquist was not the only student who had a negative first impression. Drama teacher and Lafayette Theater Company (LTC) director Natasha Fischer expressed that her students were not thrilled at first over the musical, but now have a different opinion. 

“It was not received well, I’ll say that. A lot of kids were like ‘why are we doing that?’ and now they’re like ‘ok, this is a really good script.’ It’s about kindness. It’s about coming together as a community and doing what’s right for all as opposed to yourself. It’s actually very relevant and pure and great. It’s a great script,” Fischer said. 

Junior Celeste Viñas will play SpongeBob, a role she was not expecting to get but is proud to have.  

“The way the musical has always been done before is with a male SpongeBob, male Patrick, but it’s different because now it’s a female SpongeBob and a female Patrick. Not only that, but all of the stars are people of color except for one which is more interesting because it’s more diverse than what we’re used to, so it’s pretty cool. I’m excited for them to see that and see the new side to the story,” Viñas said.