Brigadoon Opens at AHS

The Asheville High School Auditorium will be transformed into the Highlands of Scotland for April 10, 11, and 12 performances of Brigadoon. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. on April 10-12, with a matinee performance at 2:00 p.m. on April 12. Tickets--$5 students, $10 adults, $8 senior citizens—will be available at the door.

Brigadoon, which opened on Broadway in 1947, was written and composed by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. Director CJ Breland says, “There are some really beautiful melodies, such as ‘Almost Like Being in Love.’ If you don't go home humming at least one song, we'll be very surprised.”



This production is a collaboration of various AHS Arts programs. Forty-four students are in the combined Theatre and Musical Theatre classes, forty of which appear onstage. Jennifer Todd serves as music director. AHS graduate Ami Pisano returns to choreograph her third AHS musical, while Rita Pisano serves as pianist. Emily Talley directs a pit band of AHS Band students.

The plot combines elements of fantasy with a couple of love stories. Two hunters, Tommy and Jeff (Cameron Gregg and Jon Speer) happen upon the village of Brigadoon while on a vacation. Despite being engaged to a girl in New York, Tommy falls in love with Fiona (Phoebe Stubblefield,) while Jeff is chased by a rather energetic lass, Meg (Robin Tynes.) Tommy and Jeff decide to stay for the wedding of Fiona's sister Jean (Paige Borden) to Charlie (Neil Blank) before leaving. But Brigadoon has a fantastic secret, and so the plot thickens.



The Technical Theatre class has provided support for the show by doing much of the design and construction of sets, including a forest curtain, and costumes.

Mr. Bill Sanderson, AHS Science Department, took the Technical Theatre students to the Scottish Tartan Museum in Franklin, where they did research on kilts and other Scottish wear. Mr. Sanderson also helped the students learn how to measure and pleat kilts, after which they made a dozen. “We did so much pleating that I would look at someone wearing a plaid shirt and start figuring out how to pleat it for a kilt,” says Kristin Lane. “But they turned out very well,” she adds.


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