Homeschoolers to perform ‘Brigadoon’

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

The stage at Sartell High School will become a tuneful swirl of plaids, kilts and tartans when homeschooled children from the greater St. Cloud area perform the classic musical Brigadoon.

The first of three performances took place at 7 p.m. June 9. A second performance is set for 7 p.m. Friday, June 10; and a matinee performance will be given at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 11. All performances are in the Sartell High School Theater. Tickets will be available at the door.

For the play’s director, John Ronyak, Brigadoon is a fond déjà vu. It’s the first play he directed 14 years ago in Sartell. It’s also a special occasion because his daughter, Hannah Ronyak, has the leading female role in the play. Hannah is also the play’s choreographer. The play has a cast of 40, ranging in age from children in grades 5-12.

“I enjoy the play immensely,” he said. “It’s funny, and it’s a wonderful love story. We’re having so much fun with it. It’s almost a family affair. A lot of first-time actors are in it along with some real pros.”

Ronyak has special praise for Becky Kapsner, the play’s musical director.

“She is so good!” he said. “And the kids sound so good because of Becky’s teaching.”

Brigadoon will be performed later than usual for a school production because it was difficult to work a play for homeschoolers into the busy scheduling in the Sartell-St. Stephen School District while schools were in session. Another reason is that director Ronyak, a speech teacher, had to wait until speech-teaching season was over. Auditions began in early April, and the casts and crew have been rehearsing in whatever spaces they could find, including some church basements, Ronyak noted.

There are more than 300 area families involved in one way or another in the Brigadoon production, all of them members of the St. Cloud Area Homeschool-Educated Youth organization.

Brigadoon is the first homeschooled musical in three years, the last being 2013’s Oklahoma!

First produced in 1947 on Broadway, Brigadoon was written by the legendary duo of Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner, who later wrote and scored My Fair Lady. Brigadoon was made into a 1954 movie starring two great dancers in the lead roles – Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse.

The musical is about a Scottish town named Brigadoon, a strangely enchanted town that appears only for one day in 100 years and then disappears into some other unearthly dimension. A visitor who might stumble upon the town while it’s on Earth can stay in the lovely, happy town only if that person falls in love with a Brigadoon resident. Well, as luck would have it, two men friends from America on a hunting vacation to the highlands of Scotland happen to stumble upon Brigadoon, and one of the men, Tommy, falls in love with a captivating Scottish lass named Fiona, a dweller in Brigadoon.

Meantime, Tommy’s love interest, a high-tone socialite, remains waiting for his return to New York City. Tommy is torn between the two women – one a sophisticated city woman, the other a rustic, charming, wholesome country gal.

Will Tommy decide to stay in the immortal Brigadoon with Fiona or will he return to New York City? Well, people will have to see the play to find out.