The inaugural Indiana Festival Theater launches their summer season with Meredith Willson's The Music Man, directed by George Pinney.
Not Exactly Maid Marian
Julia Mosby plays Marian the librarian. "I came to IU from California," she says. "During my years here I appeared in Oklahoma! and Blood Brothers. After this summer, I'm off to New York."
While she sticks around, though, she's enjoying theatre here. "Marian is a lovely role. She has a dignity and grace about her that I try to present. Initially, she's a little jealous of this fast-talking stranger. I mean, she's a music teacher with just a few piano students, and he's got everybody involved with music.
"But then she sees how his influence brings her younger brother to blossoming, and the effects on everyone else. She decides that this is a valuable and great person."
Even Less Exactly, Robin Hood
IU undergrad Taylor Crousore, who plays Professor Harold Hill, that "valuable and great person," is from Bloomington. Area residents may have seen him in high school and college productions. He's also on television, as the co -host of WTIU's kids show "Friday Zone."
When Robert Preston auditioned for the role, Meredith Willson had him sing "Ya Got Trouble," telling him that if he could handle that song, he'd be fine for the part. "It's tough," said Crousore, "but I have been working on it in my voice lessons and really focused on getting the articulation clear and the emphasis in the right place. And I...and all of us...have been getting a lot of help from our music director Terry LaBolt.
"Actually, this isn't the first time I've done Music Man," Preston goes on. "I was in the show at Bloomington South my freshman year. A student that I looked up to, Sam Coleman, played Harold Hill. It's kind of cool that I'm doing it now."