Last semester, a memorable event for the school theatre was their musical, Newsies. Senior Owen Unrien, who played the role of “Race,” spoke fondly of the show.
“The show was amazing,” Unrien said. “Newsies was the hardest show I’ve done for sure. It’s a massive production with lots of moving parts and really hard dancing and singing. It took a lot of work [and precise training] to get through the process, but at the end of the day, all that hard work was worth it.”
Unrien’s favorite scene to perform was the first scene of Act II, where he takes the stage and sings “King in New York.”
“It’s such a fun dance [and] it’s nice to have a feature in the song [which] hasn’t happened in a musical up until this one. That’s a cool reward for me,” he said.
Creating and caring for this show involved much sweat and toil as Unrien mentioned previously, but it also heavily involved a trip to the hospital as he had pneumonia.
“I was sick and out of rehearsal for [around] three weeks– so I missed a lot of [practice],” he said.
Although Unrien had some of his worst weeks in the hospital, it was through that event that he found his favorite line and felt the love from the Newsies team.
“The reason [‘I got Midtown’] is my favorite line is because the first day I came back to rehearsal from the hospital, I didn’t tell anybody that I was going to be there. And [coincidently], they were running that [certain] scene as I walked in,” Unrien said. “Nobody saw me [come in] and when they eventually got to my part of the line, I said it from the audience and everybody’s heads just turned.”
The cast, being so surprised and glad that he was back, showed Unrien the care and appreciation they had for him.
“That was definitely the moment I realized how loving all these people are and how much they wanted me there and how much I wanted to be there,” he said.
Feeling the cast’s love and support was just the reason why Unrien has stuck with theatre for the past seven years. When asked if he enjoys theatre because of his personal enjoyment or for the people, Unrien could not decide and chose “both.”
“I love [what goes into the show] and I love doing it with the people I love,” he said. “And that’s especially good here at BV– we’ve got a really good community and theater department.”
Through working on show productions, Unrien has grown and discovered things he is passionate about.
“I never expected myself to like dancing, but I found a love for dance and I’ve enjoyed singing as well,” Unrein said. “I also like [getting to] perform and showcase hard work on stage. Especially with musicals, like Newsies.”
