Veritas Christian Academy students rehearse spring musical

Each spring, Veritas Christian Academy puts on a musical performance that involves most of the students in the school.

From staging to singing to set pieces, the spring musical has become a rallying point for the school community.

Previous performances have included “The Music Man,” “Big Fish,” “The Lion King Jr.” and “Frozen Jr.” last year.

This spring, Veritas will be performing Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast Jr.” on May 5 and 6.

It will be directed by longtime Veritas drama teacher, Sara Bartlett.

Students have been rehearsing and they have gained insight and inspiration from experts. Former Broadway star of “Beauty and the Beast,” Christopher Monteleone came to a recent rehearsal to talk about his approach to bringing iconic roles to the big stage.

Monteleone played both the Beast and Gaston at various points in the Broadway show.

Darren Lawson, dean of fine arts at Bob Jones University, who just finished directing the musical production at the college in Greenville, S.C., also visited Veritas to share how he approached the musical.

At five performances, more than 12,000 people saw that school’s production. Lawson shared clips from his show with the Veritas cast clips to help them visualize aspects of the production and he offered insight on making the show a success.

The lead roles for the Veritas production include senior Abby Hipolit as Belle, junior Ben Ryan as the Beast and junior Gunner Andersen as Gaston.

For information, go online to veritasnj.org