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FEBRUARY 23, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3 KeizerCommunity KEIZERTIMES.COM Lend Me a Tenor opens at McNary Feb. 23-24 KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley McNary senior Beau Reitz has played the national athem before volleyball and basketball games as well as wrestling duals. He plans to double major in music and political science in college. Reitz plays the anthem By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes McNary senior Beau Reitz was nervous the fi rst time he played the national anthem on the violin before a Lady Celts volleyball game. “My heart was pounding,” Reitz said. “It’s really scary because kind of how you’re afraid if you’re singing it to mess up the lyrics, in the same way if you mess up people are shocked so you don’t want to do that. There’s more pressure and more enthusiasm about the piece itself. It’s defi nitely hard to do but thankfully it’s an easier piece to play on the violin.” Reitz has since played the anthem four more times, be- fore wrestling duals and bas- ketball games. He fi rst picked up the vio- lin in the fourth grade when Bruce Purdy, then the orches- tra director at Claggett Creek Middle school, came to his elementary school and played all of the different instruments. “I just really loved the song he played on the violin and had to play it,” Reitz said. Reitz began taking private lessons in the sixth grade with Evan Roth in Salem. He now plays in the chamber ensemble and advanced symphony at McNary. Reitz primarily plays classi- cal musical and is working on Chaconee in G Minor by Tomaso Vitali for the Oregon Music Education Association Dis- trict 4 competition on March 10 at McNary. He’ll also use the piece to earn scholarship crossword money. Reitz has been accepted to Georgetown University, University of San Francisco and Seattle University. He’s learning towards Georgetown, where he would double major in music and political science. Reitz’s interest in politics started last year when he took AP government during the presidential election. “That was just a really good time to be in that class and I just got really interested,” said Reitz, who has no interest in running for offi ce himself but might be interested in work- ing on a campaign or going to law school. At McNary, Reitz is also a member of FBLA and presi- dent of National Honor So- ciety. By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes McNary senior Jon Taylor can relate to Max in Lend Me a Tenor, an assistant to the gen- eral manager of the Cleve- land Grand Opera Company who is thrust to take center stage after a series of unfor- tunate events strike a world- famous tenor. Since moving to Keizer from Maryland, Taylor has spent the past two years off stage working on the techni- cal side of McNary’s produc- tion, building sets and pro- gramming lights. Taylor’s only unfortunate event was missing the stage manager meeting. Instead, he decided to au- dition for McNary’s One Act Festival. But to his surprise, Taylor was called back for Lend Me a Tenor. “I was pretty terrifi ed be- cause this is the biggest thing I’ve ever done and I’m still pretty nervous,” Taylor said. “I’m much more confi dent now than I was like two months ago.” Lend Me a Tenor opens in the Ken Collins Theater on Friday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. Ad- ditional shows are Feb. 24, March 1-3 at 7 p.m. and March 3 at 2 p.m. General admission tickets are $5 for students and se- niors and $7 for adults and available at the door or in advance at mcnary-theatre. ticketleap.com. As Max, Taylor spends the fi rst act of the play running around looking for Tito Mer- elli, the greatest tenor of his generation. After accidentally giving Tito a double dose of tran- quilizers in an attempt to calm the singer down, Max is persuaded to get into Tito’s costume and fool the audi- ence into thinking he’s the tenor. “I really like the charac- ter,” Taylor said. “I can kind of relate to the fi rst act Max. It’s a whole lot of fun to play Max.” Taylor wasn’t the only cast member of Lend Me a Tenor who though they were audi- tioning for one acts. Freshman Elise My- ers, who plays Maggie, the daughter of Saunders, the general manager of the op- era company, who is Max’s girlfriend but also infatuated with Tito, was also surprised to get called back. “That really surprised me but I was really happy,” said Myers, who was in the en- semble for The Wizard of Oz at McNary and the cabaret as a student at Whiteaker Middle School. “It’s a big change from ensemble but at least there’s no dancing and singing. That makes it a little easier.” “I try to cast on based who I think is right for the roles and just something about her really fi t the role and the qualities I was looking for,” McNary drama director Tom Cavanaugh said. “It was also nice that she was younger because we need the audience to buy into the fact that another high school- er is her dad. That’s not why I cast her but it defi nitely helps with the story telling a little bit, too.” McNary senior Matthew Albright plays her dad— Saunders. The rest of the cast in- cludes Steven Cummings as Tito, Sydnie Gould as Tito’s wife—Maria, Bella Fox as a seductive opera singer named Diana, AB Feinauer as chair- woman of the Cleveland Op- era Build—Julia and Rachel Herriges as a bellhop who’s also an obnoxious opera fan. The play takes place in 1934 in a hotel suite in Cleveland, Ohio. The set includes a bed- room and living room, with a wall dividing each room and door leading from one to the other. Throughout the play, the audience can see what is happening in both rooms at the same time. Lend Me a Tenor is written by Ken Ludwig and received nine Tony Award nomina- tions when it premiered on Broadway in 1989. The play is rated PG-13. “We’re doing a straightfor- ward interpretation of what the script says,” Cavanaugh said. “I picked it because I liked the script so much. I think it’s a really well written farce. It’s also an opportunity for eight very different charac- ters to be on stage. There’s eight very distinctive differ- ent personalities. One of the things we spent a lot of time talking about in this play is what their characters want and using that to drive the humor so there was a lot of good acting conversations we could have around the play.” We are Everything Except Overpriced Simple Cremation $875 Inexpensive Burial and Funeral Options Pre-Planning Available On-Site Crematory 4365 RIVER RD N, KEIZER 503.393.7037 Se habla español Pucker up. 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