This year the Loyola Academy Thespians will be performing Annie Jr. for our fall musical. There has been so much hard work going into it from the costumes, sets, lights, sound, and of course all of the wonderful performers and faculty and staff that have helped make this musical come to life. 

I think one of the best parts is actually having in-person theater again, with a live audience. Even though we did two amazing productions last year, it still wasn’t the same. Productions missed the audience being there, and being all together as a cast and crew, which was hard to do last year because of the alphabet split. 

Although it was a tough and different time, I do feel that there were some good things that came out of it. One important factor that seemed to remain the same no matter what happened was the sense of community that is built between everyone that is working together on a production. I think it helped us realize to be grateful for each other and grateful to be able to perform theater anyway we can. 

Although that is all great, after not being able to do this for such a long time, it’s great a relief to finally have some sense of normal theater come back. As Marin Rooney, who is playing Pepper, one of Annie’s fellow orphans states “After a strange year of COVID, I’m so happy to be back and working with an amazing group of people to put on this production. If you’re thinking about coming to see Annie, you definitely should! It’s gonna be great!” 

As I talked about before there are many different ways that people helped and were involved in the musical this year. For me, instead of being a part of the cast, I got the opportunity to work on helping and making the sets. My favorite part had to be growing a strong appreciation for all the people that work behind the scenes, to along with these amazing actors, help these productions come to life. 

Something else that I really enjoyed was that on the last day of working with sets, I got to see all of our hard work come together, just in time for tech week and the production. 

As Ashley Sanchez, who is playing one of our ensemble members along with the role of Officer Ward states “Being back is awesome because there’s no feeling like being on stage. I’m so excited for everyone to see how hard we have worked to put on a great show! I would highly recommend people to join theater because it is truly one of the best experiences I’ve had at Loyola!”

I’m very excited for all of you to see our in-person production of Annie Jr.  I promise it’s going to be an amazing musical you don’t want to miss, that will even include our therapy dog Teagan playing the role of Sandy. So come watch and enjoy Annie Jr. starting Thursday, November 11 through next Sunday, November 14.