Sunday, April 1, 2012

Afton is Kelsi

The title of this post is what Brady told Stef after Afton successfully auditioned for the San Benito HS (Hollister, CA) production of "High School Musical" (HSM).  It took Stef a while to figure out what he was saying.  Afton played the part of Kelsi Nielsen.  Julie and I went to the 2nd night of the play a couple of Saturdays ago.

If you haven't seen HSM, it's about a group of high school students who are very cliquish: the skaters, the braniacs, the jocks, the drama people, etc.  Some have described the plot as a modern day adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.  It's a story about two high school juniors from rival cliques – Troy Bolton (one of the "jocks"), captain of the basketball team, and Gabriella Montez (a natural to fit in with the "braniacs"). Gabriella is a transfer student who excels in math and science.  They both try out for the lead parts in their high school musical and the cliques are threatened to be divided.  Troy and Gabriella resist peer pressure and rivalry, inspiring others along the way not to "stick to the status quo". Sharpay Evans, a drama queen and high school diva will do anything to sabotage the friendship between Troy and Gabriella and also get a lead in the school musical, assisted by her brother Ryan, and become the girlfriend of Troy Bolton.  So you see the plot has a few "conflicts" in it to keep it interesting.

Afton played the part of Kelsi Nielsen, a rather introverted but creative student who composed the musical being staged by the drama department.  (BTW, the school play is titled "Juliet and Romeo")

Stef worked behind the scenes to help create the program.  She took pictures of the students (jumping) and put them all together on the front cover and played a big part in the internal design.  She also took individual pictures of the cast members and posted 8x10's of them in the hallway leading into the theater.  A very good support for the play.

There were about 50 cast members in all and 20 of them were LDS students.  Several of Afton's church friends had some impressive roles.  Taylor Lawrence played the part of Gabriella, Afton's boyfriend Nick DeHoyos (sp?) played Troy Bolton, Shaelyn Eggers played Ms. Darbus, the stern drama teacher.  There were others..

Afton colored her hair, had it cut shorter and dug up a very nerdy pair of glasses to more fit the part.  Very impressive.  Now that you've read all this, catch some of the pictures below.

Afton's Bio

Program by Stef


Afton as "Kelsi"on the right 


Shaelyn as "Ms. Darbus" the drama teacher (in the green)


"Kelsi" and 'Sharpay"


"Kelsi" and "Gabriella" (Taylor Lawrence) and "Troy" (Nick)




"Gabriella" and "Troy"




Group hug






"We're All in This Together"


6 comments:

Lindseys said...

Fun post, dad. We knew that Afton was Kelsi, but it is fun to see the pictures. We wish we were there to see the actual play.

Stefani said...

Thanks Dad for posting all this! It was such a fun play. You can't help getting pumped up. The kids did a great job and we were especially partial to Kelsi/Afton/Kelsi... well you know what I mean... We're glad you got to come see it.

karensumpter said...

Thanks for the post Dad. I almost feel like I was there:)

Kelsi Meyer said...

I feel like I should grow my hair out and bleach it blonde then start going by Afton now. Then the balance to the universe will be restored XD The play was lots of fun!

Kristen said...

Wish I could have seen it! But thanks for the pics dad!

Camille said...

Thanks for sharing, Uncle Joe! It's fun to keep up on what our family members are doing. You make a great Kelsi, Afton! And, Stef, awesome job on the photos!

(BTW, Zac Efron is our local hero around here since he grew up in Arroyo Grande. Anytime he appears in the newspaper, they make sure to mention that he's from AG, lol!)