Frontier students to ‘boogie down’ in spring musical ‘Mary Poppins’

SOUTH DEERFIELD — Magic tricks and tap numbers will fill the Frontier Regional School theater ensemble’s spring musical, “Mary Poppins.”

When Frontier actors picked the spring production last year, the musical, following the story of a magical London nanny who mysteriously appears at a troubled household to raise the two young children, garnered the most votes. Senior Sofia Hebert, who plays Mary Poppins, said the reason it won was simple.

“It’s a classic. Everyone already knows the songs,” Hebert said at a dress rehearsal, donning Mary Poppins’ signature white blouse and long black skirt.

At the group’s first vocal rehearsal, the lyrics flew from the young thespians’ mouths, Hebert recalled. She remembered the director joking, “Alright, my work here is done. You guys already know the songs.”

Hebert described Mary Poppins as “a contradicting character in a good way.” She marked in her script the switches in Mary Poppins’ personality during each scene.

“She changes who she is around different people,” Hebert said. “She is the nanny and she takes the orders and she does everything practically perfect, and then when she’s with the kids, she’s magically pulling a coat rack out of her bag … or when she makes statues come to life and she does all these magical things. She’s still this figure for the kids to look up to in a way that says the world isn’t so scary and you don’t have to be brats — everything is wonderful.”

Senior McCavery Burgess plays Bert, Dick Van Dyke’s “happy and jolly character” in the 1964 film.

“I get to smile a lot, and that’s what I like. I like playing characters like this who are usually in a happy mood,” Burgess said.

Junior Noah Smith drew from his own childhood to play 7-year-old Michael Banks.

“I get to live out my childhood again, even if I’m still in it technically. When I was younger, I was definitely a brat, so I get to be one again,” Smith said, giggling with three of his castmates.

Unlike Smith, junior Isla Sparrow’s role of Michael Banks’ older sister Jane required her to step outside of herself.

“I was a very quiet kid and I was very nice to my mom, and it’s very fun to be a character who says whatever’s on their mind,” Sparrow said.

To perform the musical’s memorable number, “Step in Time,” many of the actors tap danced for the first time. After rehearsing the dance and its “shuffle-step, shuffle-step, shuffle-step, ball change” three times each week since rehearsals started, “I can think about what I ate for breakfast and still do it perfectly, and everyone can do that,” Hebert said, tapping her shoes as she spoke.

“It’s been a blast to be able to boogie down a lot,” Burgess said.

With a smaller cast of about 20 actors for “Mary Poppins,” Smith said the group is “more close-knit,” spending almost every night after school acting, singing and tap dancing together.

“I see them more than I see my family,” Sparrow joked.

After transferring to Frontier in eighth grade, Sparrow joined the theater ensemble to make friends at her new school.

“It was a very amazing way to make some connections and to connect with my community,” Sparrow said. “It’s a skill. It’s not just about acting. It’s about being able to come together with a group of people and to tell a story, and be able to build off of each other and build each other up.”

Hebert said the vulnerability of performing connects the actors with a “deeper bond.”

“It is so much fun and there’s no better feeling than to have a whole scene with us about the family dynamics and then go home and say, ‘OK, let’s go get McDonald’s, let’s go have some fun,’ and be able to play both worlds so beautifully,” Hebert added. “I personally take my love for my castmates and put it into the scene.”

Performances of “Mary Poppins” will be held in the Frontier auditorium on Friday, March 13, and Saturday, March 14, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, March 15, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10.