MOUNT VERNON – Theater director and teacher Cory Ward will direct his final production at Mount Vernon High School next weekend. He is retiring at the end of this school year. 75 students from 2nd through 12 grades will present Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I. There are twelve students in the orchestra and sixteen students working as backstage crew. The musical is based on a true story from 1860’s Siam as the King introduces his family to a British school teacher to ‘westernize’ them and a culture clash ensues.
Ward said, “I love the music in this show, I wanted a show that featured Knox County, our children. I think people will come out here and will walk out these doors at the end of the show in awe. My goal is to wow them. My other goal, of course, is to fill the theater.”
MVHS Junior Rachel Rinehart has been cast as Anna, the British school teacher. Rinehart said, “This is a complete new world for [Anna] – she’s not used to seeing what is on the east side of the world. She meets her best friend, the head wife to the King.”
KCCC Senior Jakob Daniels stars as the King. Daniels described his character. “The King is like a king, full of himself, he thinks he’s always right..but Anna changes that, she brings all these new ideas that make him wonder, “Am I runnning my kingdom as I should be?”
Anna (Rachel Rinehart) surrounded by the King’s wives – KnoxPages.com photo by Mike Sherfy
