‘The SpongeBob Musical, Youth Edition’ takes the stage at NFM Academy for the Arts
Nearly 100 middle school students will put on their annual spring musical this week.
“The SpongeBob Musical, Youth Edition,” will take stage at North Fort Myers Academy of the Arts at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 27, and Friday, April 28.
Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased at https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/70610. The evening show also provides the audience with the opportunity to meet the cast and take pictures.
The message is about inclusiveness, diversity, accepting everyone for who they are, fighting for who is right and working together as a team in a lively and fun show to save their Bikini Bottom home, said Kathy Rivadeneira, director and producer.
“They are on the run for the entire show,” she said.
They have 75 sixth through eighth grade cast members and about 20 working backstage.
“We ran auditions right before Christmas. With the hurricane everything gets pushed back. We literally only had one audition before break,” she said. “We got our minds wrapped around who we might see again. Rehearsals started in February.”
The cast rehearsed Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, for about an hour and a half, as well as one Saturday rehearsal.
“The kids love the show. They know more about SpongeBob than I do,” Rivadeneira said laughing.
The musical includes original songs from Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Sara Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton, The Flaming Lips, Lady A, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend and Panic! at the Disco.
“They have written songs specifically for the show,” she said.
Rivadeneira said she had seen the full-length performance of “SpongeBob,” which featured some of her students.
“I loved it and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, my kids would love that,'” she said, adding that the two-hour show would be a lot for middle school students to pull off.
After finding out that the youth musical would be released in the fall, they got the rights in September. Rivadeneira said they were not finished with the script, and they could not send it out until December.
“We really couldn’t start working on it at all until mid December,” she said, adding that they cast the show, although they barely had a chance to read the script.
In addition to the students, she said everyone came together to make the show a success. The music director, two choreographers, and an incredible costume designer are just a few who helped put the show together. One of their fourth grade teachers built Gary for them, a remote control snail, and digital design does the poster and program with her students. There also is a new set designer and Florida Rep lent some props and set pieces for the performance.
“Everybody jumps in. I definitely could not do the show without everyone else,” Rivadeneira said.
The cast will perform a total of five shows in two days. There are three shows on Thursday, which she said is huge for middle schoolers to pull off.
“We have elementary kids in the morning, middle schoolers in the afternoon and then our evening show at 6:30,” Rivadeneira said.
On Friday, the morning show at 10 a.m. will include all of Pine Island Elementary School attending the performance, as well as fourth graders from Bayshore Elementary School and second graders from East Elementary School.
“We will have a full house on that day. Normally we would charge for it. This year, one way to give back, especially to the Pine Island school, we decided to do it as a gift, something we could do for them,” she said. “They love it. They came last year to see ‘Frozen.’ They were in awe. It is really fun. That is probably our best show.”
Rivadeneira said it’s fun to do some of the newer shows, especially ones they can bring the younger audiences in to enjoy. She also has the cast in mind too, as she likes to highlight great qualities of what they can bring to the table.
“That was the really great thing about this cast,” Rivadeneira said. “It is a hugely diverse cast. Anyone can play any role. Patrick is played by a girl. Anybody can play any of these parts.”
North Fort Myers Academy of the Arts is at 1856 Arts Way, North Fort Myers.