Belle, Gaston, LeFou- these are not foreign exchange students at Etowah, but students will be hearing their names in January.  Etowah’s stage will be transformed into a provincial village in France for its spring musical, “Beauty and the Beast.”

“[I am] so excited. I can’t wait to spend half of my life with all these talented people,” Emilie Dudgeon, sophomore, said.

Charlotte Forrest, drama teacher, and Will Hall, musical director and band teacher, hosted auditions last month and chose the cast and crew for the upcoming production.

“They come into the auditorium and do two songs, thirty seconds of each, and then a one-minute monologue, and then at the end of all of the five minute auditions for the day, our choreographer teaches everyone at the audition that day a short dance combination to see where their dance skills are at,” Forrest said.

Forrest’s job can be just as difficult as the students considering she is the one who has to search through all the auditions to find the best choices for the musical

“We really appreciate them coming out every year; we’re always so proud of everybody.  It really is the difficult part of my job having to pick who’s going to be in it and who’s not; we hate having to turn people away,” Forrest said.

After Winter Break, practices begin for the musical.  Check back on The Talon for times and dates for “Beauty and Beast” this spring.