“It’s a world ruled by Killer Queen and the global soft corporation who programmed music and real expression through rock and roll music is completely illegal,” said Phillip Holmes, drama teacher at PHS and director of the play. “But there’s a holdout group of Bohemians who are looking for their bright star, their chosen one who can bring back rock and roll and unleash the mighty ax.”

There were fifteen cast members, four band members and four crew members who put on the two-act show. Sixteen students in total were involved in the two-hour long performance.

The show played four times between Wednesday and Saturday to almost packed houses each time.

“We’ve been working on it since mid-January,” said Holmes. “Usually, we’d start a show a lot earlier, but we’ve had to overcome a lot of things.”

“After two really hard years with no activities in the school, we’re thrilled,” said PHS Principal Debra Stephens about what it’s like to start seeing student events happen again. “This is what makes a high school. It is absolutely brilliant to be able to have people back out and feeling that energy in the high school again.”

Stephens, who herself recently performed in the Pontiac Community Players’ show Steel Magnolias was happy to see students performing.

“I mean every time we have young people being introduced to performance, I mean that bodes well for the future of theatre in our community. So, we’ve got a whole other generation of people who are learning about theater and finding their passion with it.”

Students performing in the play said they are happy to be able to get out there.

“It’s definitely a change of events because of how we had to quarantine and how we had restrictions on how many extracurricular activities we could do, ‘’ said Ollie Cote, member of the ensemble cast, who is on her tenth musical.

“I think that people should definitely try doing musicals and things like this because it’s definitely an experience that I will never forget,” said Cote.

“I’ve been doing shows since I was seven and this one was probably one of the best ones I’ve ever done,” said Callum Maloney, who played Galileo, the hero of the play.

The show touched on themes of social media use, conformity and identity.

Register or subscribe to read this content

Thanks for stopping by! This article is available to readers who have created a free account or who subscribe to The Equity.

When you register for free with your email, you get access to a limited number of stories at no cost. Subscribers enjoy unlimited access to everything we publish—and directly support quality local journalism here in the Pontiac.

Register or Subscribe Today!