“Footloose” at 7th St. Theatre

It was a time of neon colors, slouchy shirts, tight pants, big hair, rock ’n’ roll music and Kevin Bacon — the 80s.

Now you can experience all of that at the 7th St. Theatre this weekend, starting tonight, as the Hoquiam High School drama class brings “Footloose” to the stage.

The story is of Ren McCormack a Chicagoan — who can’t sit still — who comes to the small town of Bomont with his mother Ethel (McKenna Hansen). They are looking for an easier, quieter life with family in a small town after Ren’s father abandons them.

Ren is played by Drew Carley, a senior at HHS, and the play, says director Patty Sundstrom, was pretty much picked for him. “He was in my mind. … I wanted him to have a great role his senior year. He’s got so much talent,”she said.

“I like being on the stage and I like being a lead.” said Carley after a play practice earlier this week. “I really like expressing myself.” This is evident in the first scene.

This isn’t Carley’s first lead. He played Birdie in “Bye Bye Birdie” and the Zombie in “Zombie Prom.”

“He’s fun. He brings a lot of maturity (to the stage and) he knows when to get down to business,” said Sundstrom.

The first person Ren meets at school is the feisty and prone to fisticuffs Willard (Alex Ham) and they become good friends. Ham hadn’t been in the drama class before. Sundstrom thought he would be perfect for the part. “He is so funny,” she said. But she had to do some pretty heavy recruiting. “The day before tryouts, he said he would do it. What a gift. He is terrific.”

Opposite Carley is sophomore Sadie Karl. She plays Arielle, the very confident and outspoken preacher’s daughter.

The play expects a lot of maturity from the actors and the audience. The play is family friendly but has some adult themes and is a bit suggestive.

This is Karl’s first year in drama and Sundstrom has witnessed her improvement. “She has such a big voice for such a little thing,” said Sundstrom. “She has much more confidence with her singing.” Sundstrom was excited to point out that she is looking forward to mentoring Karl for another two years.

Karl acknowledged her love for singing, she has been in 7th St. Kids productions, “Seusical” and “Once on this Island” but on stage, out in front, all by herself, she can really belt it out, and enjoys it. “I really like singing,” she said shyly, but then beamed, “I get to sing all by myself.”

The most challenging part of the her role is portraying Arielle’s attitude, you would never know it the way she struts across stage in her red cowboy boots. “She’s so sexually confident,” said Karl.

The plot of the play is that after an ill-fated accident that killed “five of Bomont’s brightest” after they were returning from a party, all dancing was banned. The ban was led by the powerful Reverand Shaw Moore (Gabe Cabell). Ren makes this his personal cause. In the end, the overall message of the play is to listen to the wisdom of young people.

Dancing and singing is what students found the most challenging part of the play. But the audience may find the energy in the dances the most rewarding. Sundstrom expects a lot from her students. “The learning curve is really steep. There are hard dances, set changes and they have to make their own costumes.” She expects the students to help each other. Once she teaches the students the dances, the ones who get it help each other. During this play it was Kennedy Gwin and Trinity Olsen.

The same thing happened in the costume department. “I make them find ‘80s costumes. I want them to take ownership.” She credits Kelsey Zelepuza (Betty Blast in the play) for taking ownership in the costume department. She made her waitress-on-roller skates costume and also fashioned a matching one for Ren. “She says ‘I’ve got an idea’ and I let her run with it.”

Sundstrom has 45 kids in the production, plus she involved another 20 from Laurie Howard’s shop class who build the sets each year.

With this ownership she is most happy. “They want it to be the best and they are doing all they can to make it the best it can be. (When they do all they can) it becomes a passion.”

Curtain rises at 7:30 p.m. at the 7th St. Theatre in Hoquiam Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. There will be a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. Tickets: adults $10 and students and children $8 and are available for purchase at Harbor Drug, Crown Drug, Rosevear’s Music, Hoquiam High School and at the door.

Richelle Barger is a writer for The Daily World and may have danced to Footloose when it first debuted in 1984. She can be reached at rbarger@thedailyworld.com. Find her on Facebook at richelle.barger.35 or follow her on Twitter @DW_Richelle.