After a long hiatus, the curtains will raise once more at Opihi College.

Fourteen years have passed since Opihi College last held a school production.

Drama and music teacher Catherine Carr aimed to put an end to that.

Mrs Carr was the musical director of the recent South Canterbury Drama League production of Come From Away.

She had over 25 years of experience as a musical director, which she was determined to put to good use at the school, beginning with the play 13 JR, which will open in the school hall next Thursday.

Mrs Carr aimed to hold a musical annually and would be “building the culture” around staging musicals and plays at the school.

The school held open auditions and the 13 cast members were selected.  They were made up of Year 7 and 8’s “with one incredible Year 10”.

She said it would mean “everything” to the kids to have an enthusiastic crowd to come and watch them tread the boards.

Year 10 student Olivia Mills (who was playing the role of Lucy) said the best bit of the play had been getting to know the other cast members. As most were two years younger, “some are not kids that I’d normally hang around with”.

She said the hardest bit had been singing the songs without the guide vocals, and just relying on the backing track.

The play 13 JR. was described as following Evan Goldman, a soon-to-be teenager whose world was turned upside down when his parents divorced, and he was forced to move from New York City to small-town Indiana.

Determined his upcoming Bar Mitzvah will be the most unforgettable event ever, Evan quickly discovered that navigating friendships, popularity and first crushes among classmates, cheerleaders, skaters and would-be rock stars is far more complicated than he expected.

The show runs from August 20-23 in the school hall.

Tickets can be purchased at Humanitix.

shelley.inon@alliedmedia.co.nz