This year, Northwood joined the craze and will present Seussical as the spring musical, running March 29-31.

“It’s fun. It’s just a really fun show and it is a lot of the characters that we had growing up in our childhood, so it is reminiscent of years past,” said senior Jessie Vohwinkle, who stars as The Cat in the Hat.

As a whole, the arts department makes the decision on what musical will be performed each year. This year’s Seussical was inspired by the desire to reach out to younger students in the community in an effort to continue to make the musical program relevant toward elementary schools curriculums.

“We wanted to make sure that we were relevant and [considering] the summer budget cuts, we wanted to demonstrate that we could support curriculum,” said drama teacher Lori Carlin, director of the spring musical.

According to Carlin and chorus teacher Marilyn Shugart, the Seussical theme ties into elementary reading month and Dr. Seuss’s birthday, which was March 2.

“March is reading [month] in our schools,” said Carlin. “We know the elementary schools do a lot with Dr. Seuss so we thought it would be a great opportunity for our feeder schools.”

Creating a musical involves different components, and art teacher/art director Leslie Burwell is glad that it requires so much group effort.

“What I like about the musical is the element of collaboration. The musical is what gives each of us in each department the ability to allow our students’ work to shine stronger than it would have if it had just been by itself,” said Burwell. “It also pulls the whole community out; people come in droves to see the musical.”

The arts department is incorporating a lot of colors and upbeat music heavy in percussion, to add to the whimsical feel of the musical. The costumes are described as vibrant, and the cast and directors say they are excited for opening night.

“Expect lots of color, lots of singing, and come in with an open mind, because it’s all about the individual and imagination,” said Vohwinkle.

Burwell is planning on letting the musical itself help the colors come to life.

“We’re going to get bright colors, we’re going to get excitement with the lights, and the musical itself sort of punches those colors up a notch,” said Burwell. “We are going to get that feeling of vibration that is really zany and loud and magical.”

In addition to “zany” colors and an upbeat feel, Seussical character Mayzie LaBird will be involved in some outlandish stunts. Senior Josy Christian, who plays Mayzie, will be singing on top of a ladder.

“It’s a ladder on top of a rolling platform and it’s terrifying,” said Christian. “Carlin, I am so grateful to her. She downsized the ladder from eight feet [to] six feet so I can’t touch the curtain any more.”

Creating a musical is more than stunts and costumes, according to pit director Eugene Cottrel, who says the music presents specific challenges.

“There are a lot of places where the vocalist, the piano and percussion are heavily centered and the wind players only have little parts here and there,” said Cottrel. “To fit those in where they have to go at the right time is going to be a challenge.”

First trumpet pit player Jackson Seagroves also finds difficulty in the music, but for different reasons.

“It’s a lot harder than any music we’ve played before because it’s written in the key that is comfortable for the vocalist and when that translates to the instruments, it’s a lot of odd keys that we don’t play,” said Seagroves. “[There are] a lot of sharps or a lot of flats, so it takes a while to get used to it.”

Though the show presents challenges, Carlin is confident that everything will fall into place.

“I love Monday night of our show week. We all go home and we think it’s not going to work, and then by Wednesday night we know we have a show,” said Carlin. “This is how it generally works and I love that feeling driving away from the school Wednesday night knowing that my kids can be proud of what they have accomplished.”