CAMDEN — Thursday evening, March 27, and Friday evening, March 28, Camden-Rockport Middle School will Broadway music, The Spirit of Broadway, at the Strom Auditorium at Camden Hills Regional High School, Route 90, in Rockport. Approximately one quarter of the student body — 90 students — have been involved in the production. Allysa Anderson teaches music at CRMS and is the director of The Spirit of Broadway. It is the fourth time the school has presented its biannual musical, and she said the energy level is unbelievable.

“It’s a lot of fun because we have a lot of kids and that translates into a lot of energy,” she said. “You have to be organized when you’re dealing with that many kids. This show is different from the rest because we’ve added sets for the first time and we tried to add character development. We’ve always just had narrators before and this time we have a script with characters. And a ghost, we have a ghost this time.”

The script and ghost refers to the way the songs are entwined through an original story line. This story is about a young man, Maxwell, and his high school classmates, who discover the depth of musical theater through a history class and trips to a local haunted theater. The ghost is only heard as a voice and never seen onstage.

Actors, singers, set designers and tech crew have been busy, up to six days a week, preparing for the show. Students in the cast are learning music, choreography, blocking and gathering costumes. Students in the tech crew made posters and props, T-shirts, and are learning details of backstage planning.

The Spirit of Broadway will feature Broadway show music, performed by the school’s sixth, seventh and eighth grades, and include solos to full cast numbers with more than 60 kids singing and dancing.  

Many community members and parents are volunteering to help with the production. Musicians include Susan Iltis on piano, Max McFarland on bass, Jeff Densmore on drums and Matt Smith on guitar. Smith is the CRMS assistant principal and this is his first year appearing with the musical. Allysa said it was a treat to include him because he already knows so much about the students and the school community.

Kristi Williamson is an experienced choreographer and took on the challenge of teaching dance to the sixth, seventh and eighth graders for the musical.

“They are so fun to work with,” she said. “They are quick learners and they pick up the movements so fast. The kids change, but over the years the moves stay pretty much a constant. We’re always exploring traditional music theater. They all have their own style, and they come from a different decade, a different era. Generally we try to pull from the essence of that style, the particular piece and try to bring that to life.”

Williamson works with the Terra Diddle Collective which is a community puppetry theater company, and she teaches yoga. Tech director is Erma Colvin, and the drama coach is Julia Olsen.

Tickets, $8 for adults; free for children under 5; shows on Thursday and Friday nights start at 6:30 p.m.