Quaker Valley High School musical, 'Pajama Game,' to be streamed online

The spring musical at Quaker Valley High School will look a little different this year – but it’s happening.

Austin Wolford, the school’s choir and musical director, said the play “Pajama Game” will stream online on April 16, 17 and 18. There will not be a live show.

“It’ll basically be like going to see a movie,” Wolford said. He said the show has been filmed in order to properly social distance. And instead of live streaming the event, Wolford said the pre-recorded film route was chosen to prevent from running into technical difficulties some could encounter while streaming it.

“So we filmed the show in the beginning of March and we’ve been editing together since then,” he said.

The 1954 musical is set in the 1960s Midwest at a pajama-making factory. The factory’s union is fighting for a $0.75 wage increase when its superintendent ends up falling in love with someone in the grievance committee and an internal battle ensues.

“It’s a comedy show,” Wolford said.

When the high school’s fall play was canceled, Wolford knew the pandemic would likely still be a factor come spring. So he said he wanted to find something with a smaller cast and something that didn’t break the school’s budget.

“We did ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ last year. People loved it. So we wanted to do another (classic). This fit really well with our cast of characters,” he said.

Mary Savocchia, 17, plays Gladys Hotchkis, a secretary in the pajama factory. The senior said she enjoyed the musical’s variety in songs and dance styles.

“It definitely has a good message,” she said of the show. This will be Savocchia’s last high school performance before she heads off to college to pursue a degree in theater performance or dance.

She said the last year has been tough – especially when it came to performing for this show. The students were required to wear masks.

“There was definitely a learning curve at first,” she said. “It’s already hard singing and dancing at the same time. Doing it with something on your face definitely makes it harder.”

But Savocchia, who has participated in theater all four years of high school, saw it as a learning experience.

“With acting, so much is reliant on your face. With a mask, you can see the eyes, but we had to express ourselves more with our voice in our acting, and with how we inflect words and things like that – and use your eyes more,” she said.

Wolford is proud of Savocchia and the entire cast.

“They knew there would be challenges, and yes, many of them were disappointed this year. Especially for seniors – this wasn’t what we wanted their last year to look like,” he said. “However, they pushed through and they’ve been so positive throughout the entire show season.”

For information on tickets for the show, visit qvsd.org.