King Arthur is a classic tale of romance, magic and spam. Oh, wait… Spamalot, the musical, is about King Arthur’s not-so-legendary adventures to discover the Holy Grail. A variety of characters come aboard his journey to create chaos and laughter throughout the show. Audiences far and wide anticipate their bodies aching after a few hours of continuous laughter from NHS’ student actors telling their version of the story.

The news of such adventures for the students began at the end of last school year. Many students auditioned in front of the new director and new choreographer, both separate jobs this year, Neenah School District assigned to the musical for the 2016-’17 school year. Director Kathleen McCurdy and choreographer Amy Westcott, high school choir teacher and Vintage director, worked together to cast a group of students to represent the comedic musical Spamalot. At the end of the 2015-’16 school year students rushed to the choir hallway to discover their numerous roles in the musical.

Throughout the summer and the beginning of the new school year, student actors and actresses worked hard to commit themselves to their newest roles. Spencer Pier, junior, plays lead role, King Arthur. “Personally, I character act, so I really just turn off Spencer and turn on Arthur.” Other peers of his find this technique suits them as well, including actress Emily Nault, junior. Nault plays three roles throughout the course of one show and prefers to think like the characters before going out on stage. The rest comes naturally to her. Crew members constructed the background sets, lights, and costumes. While the two parts of the show worked independently for the majority of these past few months, Saturday a special event occurred for everyone involved in the show. The infamous cue-to-cue Saturday event allowed the crew and cast to work together in order to create a harmonious and flawless transitions for lights, lines, and cues between the two groups.

After cue-to-cue on Saturday, cast and crew no longer work independently, but spend hours of their after school time to perfect the show for opening night. “I feel that opening night is kind of exciting because it’s something we’ve been working toward for a couple months and it’s finally actually time to perform and show the community what we’ve been working on,” Nault expressed, with the show’s exciting music playing in the background. Opening night gives every actor and actress the opportunity to shine in their own spotlight, and gives King Arthur to tell his comedic journeys with the community members sitting in the audience. Every person behind the curtain on opening night, Thursday, Sept. 29, prepares their own way. One actress Lily Schneider, freshman, simply stretches, puts on her microphone and costume before striding onto the stage. Others combat stress and anxiety before the show. All the students, however, prepare together with their singing voices and smiles as a community, which has formed throughout the months following up to the opening night.

Spamalot premieres Thursday, Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. and continues Sept. 30, Oct. 1, 7, and 8 at 7 p.m. in Pickard Auditorium. A matinee show is also available on Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. in Pickard Auditorium. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students.