Hughson High School gets a dose of Hakuna Matata as this year’s drama class opened up the lion’s cage to Renaissance and choir on February 5th and February 7th. Brad Thompson, Hughson High school’s drama teacher, chose to do the Lion King for his 2019 class because he finally had the opportunity to get all of the costumes for this year as well as the help of the Hughson High School art teacher, Nick Brown, who had his students make all of the character posters that decorated the theater.

Mr. Thompson said he had been looking into doing the play for years, but it was difficult getting the realistic costumes because of how complicated they were as well as finding dedicated parents to help make them.

Rochelle Wade- Cox, a parent in charge of costume creations found much of the inspiration for making the costumes on Pinterest and Etsy.  “It took me six hours to build each of the main lions and the two main lionesses. I went through about 100 glue sticks for my glue gun to build the five main masks. I also spent two hours spray painting each mask,” Cox stated. “The sixteen hunting lionesses were easier; I only spent about 6 hours making them.”

To get the scripts for the cast members and the performance rights from New York alone, cost the drama department  2,000 dollars and then an extra 3,000 dollars for the scenery. They had to raise money to pay for these which also played a factor in why it took a long time to produce the play.

Because there was so much involved in the making of this play, such as designing the sets and costumes, creating rehearsal schedules, and the choreography, it took a full year to prepare for their performance. The cast came into play in the last three months of that.

“I chose to be in drama because I have done it since my freshman year and really developed a passion for the art. Throughout the year, close friendships were made and it makes it a lot more fun to be a completely different character on stage,” said Ryan Machado, senior who played Ed the hyena.

Mr. Thompson loved this year’s class because they were responsible and they worked together as a team. Thompson would not change this year’s play; he thought everybody who was a part of it did an amazing job. He does not feel as if people are “grandstanding” and do not give their all because they do not have the leading role.

“We have a lot of fun. We would not be able to do a play like Lion King or Beauty and the Beast without our student leaders and a fabulous student leadership team. Everyone is a leader,” said Mr. Thompson.