The Annandale Theater Company has held auditions and released the cast

list for this year’s spring musical, Sister Act, based on the 1992 movie of the same name.

The plot of the musical revolves around a woman, Deloris Van Cartier, who is an aspiring performer and in a relationship with a man named Curtis. One day she witnesses a murder committed by her boyfriend and is forced to go into the witness protection program at a convent, disguised as

a nun. Initially, she doesn’t fit in at the convent, but through a love of singing learns to find her place.

“There’s a lot of things that happen along the way,” theater teacher and director of the spring musical, Katie Brunberg said. “There’s a lot of conflicts and drama, a lot of romance. But

I think the heart of the story is the ability to find your place, find your family,

and that it might not always be where you expect.”

For the audition process, students were asked to prepare one song of their choice and perform the monologue that was provided in the audition packet.

According to Brunberg, singing and acting callbacks were not needed this year. However, dancing callbacks were required to finalize the decision of the

cast.

While looking for the right cast Brunberg, primarily focused on people who could sing the part well, and then narrowed it down to people who could act well and share chemistry with the other actors.

“It really just comes down to who has all the aspects of the character that are needed,” she said, “When you are auditioning for something it’s important to keep in mind that even if you are great at acting and singing, sometimes it just comes down to the chemistry.”

Brunberg did not make the decisions by herself, however. She worked alongside chorus teach-er and music director for the musical,Patrick Vaughn.

“I help select everything that has to do with the music,” Vaughn said, “Whether it’s the pit or figuring out who is going to sing what solo, I prepare all of that along with the chorus.”

For the musical, Vaughn looked for someone who could match pitch, sell a song, and someone who threw their whole selves into their performance.

 Someone else whose thoughts is taken into consideration are the student choreographer’s opinion.

This year’s student choreographer is different from the past, due to there being three instead of just one.

According to Brunberg, the student choreographer position is decided through interviews.

This year, however, juniors Miguel Orozco and Mariam Sesay, and senior Jack Dalrymple decided to interview together.

“As far as the dancing, neither I nor Mr. Vaughn are dancers, so for the dance auditions, we always look to our choreographer which is usually a student,” Brunberg said, “The choreographers are not part of the final decision, but they do get to provide input.”

Interviews were also held for design positions. Interviewees were given a list of things to prepare prior to their interview and were asked specific questions related to each design area.

“What I was looking for was if they had some experience in the design area, and if they didn’t have experience, did I feel that they had sufficient knowledge to take on the role?” Brunberg said.

As far as the subject matter, Sister Act is much more mature than last year’s Seussical the Musical. Despite the show being rated PG, Brunberg would give it a PG-13 rating

because of the murder theme and sexual humor. Its maturity, however, isn’t just presented in the shows themes, but also in it’s more difficult songs and dances.

Despite the show being months away from it’s opening night, the opening night is the thing Brunberg looks forward to the most.

“[Opening night] is the moment it all comes together,” she said, “You see how all these kids and adults have collaborated to make something awesome, and watch the audience enjoy it as much as you have enjoyed creating it.”

This year’s cast will include Makayla Collins as Deloris, Vera Miller as Tina, Mariam Sesay as Michelle, Tarik Darwish as Curtis, Jasson Rodriguez as TJ, Jackson Fornaris as Joey, Kenneth Andeson as Pablo, Nick Ong as Ernie, Jack Dalrymple as Eddie, Savan- nah Gravitt as Mother Superior, Jes- sup Gravitt as Monsignor, Kelly Martindale as Mary Lazarus, Han Le as Mary Martin, Amanda Weaver as Mary Patrick, Claire Vaughn as Mary Robert, Kayla Osipchak as Mary Theresa, Kadijah Janneh as Bar Patron, Tim Hurd as the Cab Driver, Sirena Clemons as the Cop, Nia Collins, Gaby Alarcon, and Jason Canales as the Criminals, Miguel Orozco as the Pool Player, Nani Brown as the Newscaster, Jewel Coulter as the Waitress, and the Drag Queen role as well as Pope Paul VI role  are to be determined.

The spring musical will have its red carpet premiere on Wednesday, April 22 at 7 p.m, while the rest of the show will run from Friday, May 1 and 2 at 7 p.m to Sunday, May 3 with a showing at 3 p.m 

Any questions should be directed to Brunberg’s room.