By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Seldom are so many firsts associated with a finale.
But three presentations of Union High School Drama Club's spring musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" are Central auditorium's last shows before the move to a new middle school.
And that fact is very much on the minds of Director Tara Morton's cast rehearsing Tuesday evening for performances at 7:30 Friday and Saturday nights and a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee.
Of the six main characters, only senior Keera Morton will be graduating and heading off to Chicago's Columbia College before the new school opens on Riverside Drive, but the others' excitement for a new stage is also tempered by more sentiment than they imagined they harbored for Central.
Aislinn Frantz literally grew up on stage.
She has appeared in more than 80 shows since the acting bug bit her hard as a 3-year-old in "Tom Sawyer" and "Annie Get Your Gun."
Based on Charles Schulz's half-century "Peanuts" comic strip (October 1950-January 2000), "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" features music and lyrics by Clark M. Gesner.
The musical centers around six familiar figures, lovable loser Charlie Brown (junior Steve Long in his third musical), sister Sally Brown (senior Keera Morton), Snoopy (freshman Aislinn Frantz), Lucy Van Pelt (junior Jessica Bailey-Blank, fresh from "Rest Assured" at Beckwith Theatre), her brother Linus Van Pelt (sophomore Jordan Eby) and Schroeder (freshman Bill Davis).
Chorus members include junior Jacob Crowl, junior Melissa Logan in her first production, freshman Heather O'Neill in her first production, sophomore Renee Payne; sophomore Amanda Schaus, who admires Central's "antiqueness"; senior foreign exchange student Satakun Tanthaweeviwat, aka Nus; and Logan Eby, 7, as Woodstock.
Crew members assisting Director Tara Morton, Vocal Director Jeff Robinson and eight-piece Orchestra Director Joshua Bartz behind the scenes include first-time junior Choreographer Kim Davis, Stage Manager Kathryn Smith, Melonie Seifferlein (lighting), Nate Rohdy, Dan Nelson, Mo Pickar, Rochelle Krueger and Konnor Smith (backstage), costumers Terri Holderread, Sue Eby, Teri Frantz, Lora Bailey-Blank, Cathy Morton and Tara Morton.
Morton, who cast the show in December, is directing her first DUHS musical after two fall dramas in 2003 and in 2004. She was recovering from an auto accident last spring, which shelved the musical.