Oklahoma Coming to Aberdeen School District

The Aberdeen School District will be having their annual musical, this year's will be "Oklahoma!" This is the first play to have been prominently musical. The Director of the musical is Tamara Helland, School Counselor at Stevens Elementary.

"I saw "Oklahoma!" at the Aberdeen High School when I was a little girl and I loved it. I was just completely enchanted by it and I knew when I had a cast that could handle it that I wanted to do it for show. This year we're doing it and we're having a great time," said Helland. Helland explained that this is one of the biggest commitments that her musical crew has undertaken, due to the dancing and singing and acting that goes into it. " We are dancing an insane amount and the kids are rising to the challenge, I'm so impressed," exclaimed Helland.

Oklahoma! was the musical that changed musical theatre and the direction of what they were doing, so before "Oklahoma!" it was Vaudville and then "Oklahoma!" happened which was the first musical that was a huge success. "Oklahoma!" was the first musical exhibit that dance can further a story and these storylines can be deep in the music, and the dancing is what drives the show and the story.

"The kid's will be singing, and they have lots of music to learn and there's even fight choreography and we have some pretty difficult props. All of this has been a really big challenge for my kids and I'm really proud of my kids in how they've committed to go ahead and tackle it anyway," said Helland.

The dates of the performances will be Friday, November 20 at 7pm, Saturday November 21 at 7pm, and Sunday November 22 at 2pm. Tickets are sold at the Harbor Drug in Hoquiam and at the Harbor Shoes in Aberdeen, as well as the Aberdeen High School front office.