As the lights shined bright and almost every seat was filled, the P-CEP Park Players brought “The Music Man” to life in the Canton Little Theatre.
The story centers around con artist traveling salesman Harold Hill who tries to convince the citizens of River City, Iowa, to buy his musical instruments. But as time goes on, he starts to fall for Marian the Librarian who is skeptical of his intentions. His original goal is to pocket all the money he collects from citizens and not deliver the instruments, but as his attraction to Marian evolves, Hill commits to staying in River City with the hope to further date Marian.
With any stage musical, there’s a long process that participants go through in order to make sure things go smoothly. Director and Salem teacher Jennifer Neumann chose “The Music Man” as the first musical production of the Park Players 2025-2026 season.
“The Music Man is a classic musical. I’ve been here doing many shows, and I’ve never done ‘The Music Man,’ so I thought it would be a great time to do it, especially in the [Canton] Little Theater. I love filling the Little Theater with a big cast.”
Plymouth senior Mia Kelleher was enthusiastic about trying out for the Park production based upon the 1957 Tony-winning “Best Musical” play when the pick was announced.
Whether playing a character on stage or doing behind the scenes work, Kelleher has been involved in Park Players since her freshman year and is currently the president of Thespian Troupe #354 for the 2025-2026 school year.
“I love ‘The Music Man.’ It’s one of my favorite shows ever. And I was like, ‘I need to play Marian.’ I really was so excited, and it’s my senior year. I mean, I’m gonna audition regardless.”
While developing this production, the cast and crew have had many challenges working in the Canton Little Theater.
“With how many women do theater, especially in the dressing room and so limited mirror space, trying to get makeup done with a bunch of people on either side of you can be stressful,” said Salem junior Kylie Kwiatkowski.
Kwiatkowski plays Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn, whose main role in the show is engaging in town gossip with the other ladies in River City as Mayor Shinn’s wife.
Neumann isolates key components of musicals to a weekly schedule during production.
“The way that I run my rehearsals are Monday and Tuesday, we just do staging. We just do blocking. And then Wednesday, it was choreography. We have two student choreographers who are here on campus, and it was really nice that they could just do that on Wednesdays. Then, Thursdays and Fridays, I would teach the songs. And then you put all the elements together.”
For costuming, cast members send their measurements to a costume company. The garments are made and eventually shipped to Neumann for the show.
Sound production happens offstage.
Canton senior Zachary Farnsworth, sound coordinator for “The Music Man,” pays close attention to what every actor did to cue the music at the right moment
“For me, it was just having the time to put everything together during the show. All it is just paying attention, looking for lines, but there’s a lot of work that goes into that.”
Now that “The Music Man” has concluded, the Park Players are working on their next two shows for the 2026 season.
Auditions for the spring play, “Steel Magnolias,” which centers around a powerful group of friends in the South who go through trial and error, are Jan. 5, and Jan. 7. Auditions for the Tony award-winning musical about a group of young boys protesting against the raised prices of newspapers, “Newsies,” are Jan. 6, and Jan. 8.
