On May 9th, 2019 was the premiere of Grant Elementary’s play, Willy Wonka Jr., ran by Mrs. Hines, Mrs. Vanessa, and Mrs. Soares. These teachers volunteered to manage about 72 kids in the play in 3 months dealing with choreography, songs, scripts, and getting all the tech in control. This to me is pretty crazy to do in such a small period of time. It was also Grant’s fifth time doing a play at Colton High School’s Whitmer Auditorium.

In my opinion, it was a very good play, in the case that an elementary school hosted it. All 72 students really did put a lot of effort into their roles and held a very good performance in front of all their friends, family, and teachers. They left the crowd laughing, cheering, and with their phones up the whole time taking videos and pictures. Most of the performers, though, were somewhat complaining that they were tired of performing three times in one day. “Now that’s show biz”

One of the performers, Emily Perez, a former 6th grader, played an Oompa Loompa; and stated that her experience in the play was “very fun.” She liked singing the songs that she couldn’t get out of her head and always made sure before the day of the big performance that she memorized all the songs and choreography. She also had to learn how to balance all of her school work and the things she had to do at home, like chores, during those days when they had after school practice until 4:30 or 5 for the 3 months that she was rehearsing for the play.

Overall, from the looks of the audience and the teachers, they stated that they really did think that the students pulled it off and “broke a leg.” They were extremely grateful for the support of their parents and for Colton High School to let them use the auditorium for their play. Most importantly, though, they were glad to have a good turn out for the play.