A family brought together by music, acting, dancing, and love. This is what the theatre family prides itself on. After many musicals being performed on East High’s stage by the family, the award winning Broadway musical, “Hairspray” finally makes it way to East.

Senior, Mason Lawrence portrays the confident womanizer, “Link Larkin” this year in his first ever musical. After the shock of being named the lead, Lawrence said, “I wasn’t really expecting it. I knew I was decent at acting, but I had zero experience with singing and dancing so I didn’t think I would get a role. Now I’m extremely excited and am so honored to have the part.”

Performing on a stage in front of an audience may be terrifying to some, but it’s always worth it when you stand up there for something you believe in. The fall Musical, “Hairspray”, is based in the 60’s during the Civil Rights Movement. With all of the racial controversy happening in the world today, it seems as though this musical is extremely relevant. Standing on stage to prove a point is what really matters and no amount of stage-fright can tear that down.

“There’s a lot of issues that are discussed of empowerment, whether that’s females empowering one another versus tearing each other down or body images of the character that are mocked because of the way they look. I think all of those issues are really relevant and important to people of anytime and anyplace. This is as good a time as any to bring up that dialogue in a way that can be to entertaining and yet have a strong message behind it,” Director Jamaal Allan said.

“Hairspray” expresses the beauty of integration and reveals how repulsive segregation is. The theatre family in general is a diverse and welcoming group to all regardless of your ethnicity.
Acceptance is hard to come by in the world. Whether you consider yourself right or wrong there’s always someone who will destroy you and your beliefs. The theatre family are people you can feel like yourself with and feel safe for your personal beliefs.

“It’s awesome. You know I came from football and went right into theatre, they took me in like I was one of their own- it’s amazing,” sophomore Albert Jones Jr. who plays the lead role “Seaweed J. Stubbs” said.

Hours upon hours are put into any production. The hours put into “Hairspray” are nothing less than important and effective. A story such as this one with so much meaning mixed into a fun and entertaining show is difficult, but definitely worth every minute spent in the choir room, on stage and with your nose in a script.

There are three words that describe the East High theatre family. “Encouraging, eye-opening, freeing,” Mason Lawrence said.

Come and see East High’s production of “Hairspray” on Nov. 10, 11, 12 and watch it transform the room and the hearts inside of it.