Highland Middle School to Present Play Tonight, Tomorrow

The musical comedy, “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown,” which tells the story of beloved cartoon character Charlie Brown during several average days from Valentine’s Day to the baseball season as he mingles with friends and life’s little adventures, will come to life at 7:30 p.m. on May 4 and 5 at , 310 W. Rockland Road.

Tickets are $5 and are on sale.

In the musical, Charlie Brown (played by Jake Stueckemann) is swept into their center by a rousing tribute of only slightly qualified praise, in the song You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. He is then left to his own musings as he eats his lunch on the school playground, complicated unbearably by the distant presence of his true love, the "little redheaded girl (played by Hannah Highsmith)," who is always just out of sight.

True love also seems to be the only unmanageable element in Lucy's (played by Jackie Ovassapian and Kendall Lueder) solid life, which we discover as we watch her try to bulldoze her way through to her boyfriend's sensitive, six-year-old musician's heart, in Schroeder (played by Nick Kraus and Zach Pearson).  The little scenes then begin to accumulate, and we learn that Lucy's little brother, Linus (played by Preston Wrolstad and Emmanuel Koutsouras), is thoughtful about many things but fanatical when it comes to the matter of his blanket; that Charlie Brown's dog, Snoopy (played by Kelly Keefe and Claire Keefe), spends much if not most of his time thinking of being something else-a gorilla, a jungle cat, perhaps a handsome trophy or two-but that mostly his life is a pleasant one spent with his friend Woodstock (played by Elizabeth Murphy, Hannah Loizzo, Troy Sanchez,                   Harriet Legan, Jacob Kamin and Grace Lynch); and that Charlie Brown’s sister, Sally (played by Ellie Frega and Taylor Skie) crushes on Linus.

Valentine's Day comes and goes with our hero receiving not one single valentine, which brings him to seek the temporary relief of Lucy's five-cent psychiatry booth-The Doctor Is In.

Act Two roars in with Snoopy lost in another world atop his doghouse. As a World War One flying ace he does not bring down the infamous Red Baron in today's battle but we know that someday, someday he will.

The day continues. We learn of the chaotic events of the Very Little League's Baseball Game as Charlie Brown writes the news to his pen pal. Lucy is moved to conduct a personal survey to find out just how crabby she really is, and the entire group gathers for a misbegotten rehearsal of a song they are to sing in assembly.

It is suppertime, and Snoopy once more discovers what wild raptures just the mere presence of his full supper dish can send him into. And then it is evening. The gathered friends sing a little about their individual thoughts of happiness and then they go off, leaving Lucy to make a very un-Lucy-like gesture: she tells Charlie Brown what a good man he is.

None of the cast is actually six years old. And they don't really look like Charles Schulz' "Peanuts" cartoon characters. But this doesn't seem to make that much difference once we are into the play, because what they are saying to each other is with the openness of that early childhood time, and the obvious fact is that they are all really quite fond of each other.

The musical is under the direction of drama teacher Shelby Burton. Student directors are Manal Ahmed and Nell McGuan.

The music director is Kristen Barnes, orchestra director is Emily Walters and the choreographer is Jan Hutchins.  Others involved in the performance include Stage Manager Andy Hillier, Art Director Megan Russell, Props Master Eileen Tanguay, costumer Sara Raymond, with Kim Hall in charge of set construction and Erin Haapala in charge of promotion.

The cast includes (Little Red Haired Girl’s Friends) Hannah Smith, Samantha Ross, Maddie Duco, (Lucy’s Friends) Kate Vittore, Kaitlynd Gledhill, Libby Conely, (Schroeder’s Friends) Anthony Milunas, Luke Miller, Maddie Stokis, (Linus’ Friends) Jilly Cousins, Rebecca Townsend, Alex Pagura, (Sally’s Friends) Beth Vogg, Molly Almer, Hailey Anderson, and the (rest of the Peanut Gang) Julia Thurau, Samantha Ross, Addie McKenna, Beth Vogg, Julia Wilson, Molly Almer, Molly Cayce, Angela Piedrahita, Olivia Richardson, Hailey Anderson, Maddie Rogin, Sarah Green, Hannah Hartung, Carly Wegren, Scout Springgate, Julia Cleary, Maddie Duco and Hannah Smith.

Libertyville Elementary District 70 provided this information.