Game on -- American Canyon High presents 'Bring It On' - Napa Valley Register

March 28, 2019 at 08:15AM

Campbell is all set for her perfect moment, her senior year at Truman High where she'll be captain of the award-winning cheerleading squad. Then the bombshell falls: she is being redistricted to the inner-city Jackson High — where they don't even have a cheerleading squad.

"She's thrown off her rocks," said Noelle Moore, who plays Campbell in "Bring It On," the American Canyon High School musical opening on Friday, March 29 and running for two weekends.

The story of cutthroat competition, cheerleading and team rivalries, friendship and betrayal is the creation of a team of Tony Award winners, with a libretto by Jeff Whitty ("Avenue Q"), music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda ("Hamilton"), music composer Tom Kitt ("Next to Normal"), lyrics by Broadway lyricist Amanda Green ("High Fidelity") and music supervision by Alex Lacamoire ("Wicked").

Bring It On" is the first full-scale Broadway musical that the American Canyon theater has produced, although they have been staging plays and last year presented a junior version of their first musical, "Bye Bye Birdie."

This year, after winning $10,000 matching grant from the SHN theater company that brings Broadway shows to San Francisco "we are pushing the program," said Haley Konoval, who is handling publicity for the production. "This is different than anything we've ever done before."

Students are handling all aspects of the production, said theater teacher Summer Heartt. "They are making costumes, building sets, creating choreography, lighting," in addition to serving as student director and stage manager.

"I can relate to Campbell," Moore said. "This is about accepting yourself and enjoying your life, no matter what happens. You can't control what happens but you can control who you are."

While Campbell's life is turned -upside-down — and she has boyfriend problems, too — another transfer student is suddenly triumphant. Bridget, the geeky outcast, played by Taylor Buono, finds a warm welcome, a place on the Jackson High dance team — an a love interest too when Jackson's hip-hop artist Twig falls for her.

"I'm weird, quirky and don't fit in," Buono said. "But then at another school, I'm on the dance team and I have a boyfriend."

"As soon as I heard about the play, I was in," said Aaron Santos who plays Twig.

Buono said she has been performing in plays for as long as she can remember. "I'm excited that I'm ending my senior year with a bang," said Buono.

Another of the lead actors in the production, Frankie Martinez, said he took a longer time getting on stage.

A senior at American Canyon High, Martinez said, "I'd always loved to perform. When I was younger, I'd perform for my family but I was too shy to try anything else. I went through middle school with out trying to be involved in it, and it was in my junior year when I thought 'Screw this!' And I tried out. That's when I discovered this is where my heart is. You can be as nervous as you like standing in the wings but when you step on stage, you forget it because you are your character. It's a feeling of happiness that nothing else gives me."

Martinez plays Cameron, a hip-hop star at Jackson High. "'Bring It On" is about building bridges between the schools," he said. "It tackles issues about not fitting in, finding friends, being a friend, and how much it means to have a friend. I love the message that no matter what you face, you can do it if you have friends behind you."

While other students are making decisions about where to go to college and what fields they'll pursue after graduation, Martinez said that his experiences with theater at American Canyon High have taught him that "this is what I want to pursue for the rest of my life. I want to help people, maybe change their lives from a bad place. I want make people smile."