Murray drama and music presents ‘Time Machine Yearbook’

“Time Machine Yearbook” is an original production written and composed by Murray vocal music teacher John Calahan over the summer.

“It’s lovingly referred to as a cross between ‘Footloose’ and ‘Back to the Future’,” said Calahan.

“Time Machine Yearbook is about a girl who returns to her hometown to find out secrets she never knew existed. She goes back in time in order to fix past mistakes. The time machine scenes are more magical than science fiction.

“I’ve always been kind of fascinated with time travel stories and I had to come up with the best way for us to portray that [time travel],” said Calahan.

Student auditions were in September and have been working vigilantly to bring this musical to life over the past two months. The show is estimated to last around 90 minutes.

The main character, Claire, has many people including her parents of present and past time along with teachers from her school in both times interacting during the length of the musical.

“It’s maybe kind of a reflection on Murray, showing that there are multiple generations of people attending the same school and having the same staff and things like that,” said Calahan.

There are 15 cast members that will bring this story to life and 13 crew members working behind the scenes to make the show come to life. Ben Grove constructed the set.

The drama department received new lights through a grant from the Murray Foundation in collaboration with Murray Community Schools. All the lighting was replaced. The lighting crew is now working with the lighting cues on an iPad rather than a slide board.

“It’ll be a brand new spectacle of a show,” said musical director Jordan Grove. “It was a huge change for the better.”

“Time Machine Yearbook” premiers 7 p.m. Nov. 16 in the Murray High School gym. Tickets are available at the door and cost $3 for students/children and $5 for adults.