Free To Be You and Me
May 12, 2016
This Saturday, May 14th, the spring musical, Free To Be You and Me, will be open for the public. There will be two showings Saturday, at 11 AM and at 1 PM in the Theater. Other showings will be Thursday and Friday during school for middle schools in the area.
Free To Be You and Me isn’t a very well known story to many of us. It is based off a TV special from the 1970’s. The show used the popular songs and stories from the special in the play. An actor in the show, Jacob Hilton explains, “The play doesn’t really have a defiant story line, it is mostly just children playing and telling stories with underlying messages about destroying gender barriers and teaching kids that they can do anything they want.” The main point of the play is to send a message to younger children in out society.
To learn more about the show and play check out: Free To Be You and Me
The musical was chosen this year for Totino-Grace because “the director wants to show kids that anything is possible, and children can do whatever they like or feel. As it is said in the play ‘For how you feel is how you feel, and no one else knows that as well as you!’”
The characters in the play are all children. Everyone is pretty much equal, but the named characters are William who is a sensitive and caring boy, Janet who is a nice and open-minded girl, Richard who is a closed mind kid who things boys should do boys things and girls should do girls things, and Vickie, the new girl. Student Jacob Hilton, who plays William is a sensitive and open-minded boy. William really wants a doll even though people say dolls are for girls. I asked Jacob if he likes being a kid again and he responded with, “I love it. It is great because we had a lot of time in the play on the set because it is just one big playground.”
The Totino-Grace theater department invites everyone to the show this Saturday! To learn about the show itself and the songs from the show, check out the links below!
Check out songs on the Free To Be You and Me album:
Free To Be You and Me Soundtrack
Here’s an episode of the show from 1974:
Remembering Free To Be You and Me
