Students piled into the colorfully lit gymnasium midday to watch “Seussical the Musical” performance hosted by the Warsaw choirs. November 2-4 was filled with colorful scenes and interesting rhymes as students displayed the lively plot of this Dr. Seuss inspired musical.

  Junior Madeline Schockmann showed off her acting abilities as the narrator, Cat in the Hat. Throughout the plot, Cat in the Hat voices the trials each character is facing, and even jumps into the storyline as varying minor characters.

  “I don’t have a lot in common with the Cat in the Hat, but we are both very outgoing when it comes to hanging out with my friends,” Schockmann said. “The hardest part about performing is doing crazy things that you would never normally do in front of a ton of people you don’t know.”

  Sophomore Grady Miller played one of the main roles as Horton – a lonely elephant who discovers Whoville within the speck of dust. Throughout the plot, Horton must face bullying and ridicule from the other animals in the Jungle of Nool as he attempts to save Whoville.

  “My favorite part of the play was the songs he sang. The hardest part, however, is performing in front of everyone,” Miller said. “The one thing I have in common with Horton is that we both care about everyone.”

  Although the play was centered around varying tales written by Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss), playwright Stephen Flaherty was the one who put it on stage. “Horton Hears a Who,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “The Butter Battle Book,” “The Cat in the Hat,” “Oh the Places You’ll Go,” and other smaller pieces were included in the production.

  Sophomore Hallie Wenberg got to view the play from both an audience and minor character perspective. When Wenberg wasn’t on the stage as Thing 1, she was watching from behind the scenes.

  “My favorite part was how the characters were introduced at the beginning of the play,” Wenberg said. “It was very creative and colorful. It was obvious that a lot of hard work was put into it.”

  Senior Alli Thomas played Gertrude – a bird with a featherless tail. Gertrude spends the play torn between her crush on Horton and her lack of confidence in her tail. In the end, her faith in Horton remains strong and she helps save the town of Whoville.

  “I have some things in common with Gertrude, such as her being really shy and not outgoing. She hides in everyone else’s shadows. I’m very much the same way,” Thomas said.

  Thomas has also performed in “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Annie,” and “Oklahoma.” Despite all of her experience, there are still things that she must work on in order to perfect her performance abilities.

  “The hardest part about performing is probably feeling the stress of memorizing your lines and songs and making sure that you know all of your blocking on the stage,” Thomas said. “My favorite part from this year was getting to spend time with my friends and getting to show people that I’m not just a shy girl.”

  The inspiration for this play came to  director Deanna Schockmann when she decided that, instead of doing the more traditional plays, “Seussical “would be the perfect out-of-the-box fit to make viewers and actors more interested.

  “It is a children’s musical, but so many people have fond memories of Dr. Seuss stories it’s appealing to all ages,” Schockmann said.