A leap for dance students

Rumors are already flying that it’s the best musical in Laguna Beach High School history.

“West Side Story” is showing for two weekends at the Artists’ Theatre.

The famous 1957 Stephen Sondheim/Leonard Bernstein collaboration, based on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” tells the story of a white boy and Puerto Rican girl who fall in love, but are caught between rival street gangs.

Many drama teachers refuse to put on the play because of its legendary difficulty.

But when director and teacher Mark Dressler decided he wanted to do the show, he didn’t dumb it down.

To the contrary, he hired Tracey Bonner, a choreographer who performed with the national touring production of the show.

She put the students through the same paces as the professional show.

“Our standards are high enough that we don’t want to do something if we can’t do it right,” he said.

Dressler calls this his dream team: a massive assemblage of students trained in acrobatic dancing and complicated songs also led by Co-Director Amanda Hastings and Musical Director Roxanna Ward.

“It’s one of the most difficult roles I’ve ever done,” actor Noah Plomgren said; he stars as star-crossed lover Tony.

Plomgren admitted having some jitters before the staff preview of the show, but kept a good attitude.

“Being nervous keeps you working hard,” he said.

As a former gang leader, Tony manages to stay out of much of the action, but Plomgren said he’s astonished at the quality of dance with which his fellow students have performed.

“Ninety-nine percent of these guys have never danced before in their lives,” he said.

Many of the student actors are athletes. Now they’re performing mock balletic fights, leapfrogging over each others’ shoulders at full height and managing to look graceful — all at the same time.

“It’s been a challenge,” student Brad Barnes said. “This is for sure the most I’ve ever danced in my life.”

The dancing isn’t the only challenge to many of the students.

“We were flipping off a balcony, and I landed on my back,” Barnes said.

The set is a raw-boned, multilayered masterpiece, constructed by the school.

A cantilevered stage sits 18 feet up, and juts out in odd dimensions into the audience.

Tenement buildings were constructed with wire mesh; windows skew in anomalous angles.

“This is an abstract show,” Dressler said. “It’s modern and very expressionistic, so we made the set reflect that.”

Lighting designer Michelle Jones also played into that sense of abstraction, he said, using exposed lights and uplighting to provide the feeling of a formal dance performance.

“This look is exactly what I wanted,” Dressler said.

Shocking even themselves, the students were ready to debut the show far in advance of the first curtain due to their directors’ discipline.

“I’m so excited. This is one of the only things I’ve ever done where we could have performed it three weeks ago,” junior Monique Thomas said.

The early preparation wasn’t the only reason for her excitement.

“My grandmother is coming to this one,” she said. “She lives three hours away.”

Preparations for the school’s staff preview night were relatively calm.

While parent volunteers curled hair and applied pancake makeup, students flipped through a November 1949 issue of the Ladies’ Home Journal, used as a prop during the show. They were surprised at how many brands advertised in the magazine still exist today, and they sighed at the fashions of the day.

For student Daniella Crivella, the costumes are the best part of the show. Some are vintage; some are reproductions. All come from the school’s legendary costume basement, a source of delight for many of the actresses.

Boys portraying Puerto Rican gang members practiced singing outside; their words echoed off the school’s walls. Many had dyed or sprayed their hair dark colors.

The school doesn’t have many Latino actors and actresses, Dressler said.

Kelly Hancock, who stars as Maria, also dyed her hair for the role.

Dressler sees the show as being a culmination of many years’ work.

“This is the apex,” he said. “We had to create a culture here that drama is a cool thing. I’ve always wanted to do this show.”

He didn’t bother to hide his glee at the feats of his students.

“The parents of these kids are going to be freakin’ astounded,” Dressler said.

If You Go

Who: Park Avenue Players

What: West Side Story

Where: Artists’ Theatre, 625 Park Ave.

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and March 20, 21 and 22; 2:30 p.m. Sunday and March 22

How much: Premium reserved $20, adults $15, students and seniors $12

Information and tickets: (949) 497-7769