Kingswood Academy Musical Spreads Good Messages and Technicolor Dreams

Audiences will be treated to music with a message this weekend when performs its spring musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

The 49-student cast will put on a marathon five performances, each time telling a story that emphasizes some of Kingswood’s core values.

“The music is so fun, it’s an upbeat show and it has a good message,” director Becky McNulty said. 

Some of those messages include forgiveness, humility and perseverance. 

Joseph, for example, forgives his brothers even after they try to murder him. His brothers then demonstrate humility when they realize their errors. 

Even though the cast members are young, McNulty said the messages hit close to home. 

“They take it to heart,” she said. “We talk about these things, like ‘How does it apply to you personally?’” 

McNulty helps connect Joseph’s struggles with things the students can relate to, such as persevering through a difficult homework assignment.

Students from nearly every grade level appear in the show, from first-graders through eighth-graders. The first- and second-graders all get mentors from sixth- through eighth-grade students who help them keep track of their costumes, remind them when a long rehearsal is coming up and otherwise guide them through the process.

“It fosters that friendship between the older kids and the younger kids,” McNulty said. “There’s none of that ‘I’m better than you because I’m older.’” 

To McNulty’s surprise, even students who aren’t official mentors have taken it upon themselves to help their peers. 

One week, the group might be struggling with a scene, but she said they’ll show up with it in perfect shape the next week. She’ll later find out that the kids decided to practice on their own during recess. She promoted some of those students to dance captain status. 

McNulty cast the students in December. They had until the end of January to learn their parts on their own and then began once-a-week rehearsals at Kingswood. The rehearsals themselves serve as an opportunity to reinforce the school’s virtues, including timeliness, orderliness and how a student’s actions affect other people.

The students’ professionalism during the process has impressed McNulty again and again.

“It is amazing for the most part,” she said. “You don’t see that meanness. I’m not trying to make you think they’re perfect, but they’re pretty darn great.”

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat runs at 12 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday at . Tickets are $8 at the door.