Footloose

Moving in from Chicago, newcomer Ren is shocked when he discovers the small Midwestern town he now calls home has made dancing and rock music illegal. As he struggles to fit in, Ren faces an uphill battle to change things. With the help of his new friend, Willard Hewitt, and defiant teen Ariel Moore, he wants to change this conservative town into the town that can be more acceptable to dancing and rock music. But Ariel's influential father, Reverend Shaw Moore, is in the way of preventing: Ren finds out that this is because about 5,6 years ago, a bunch of kids, including Reverend Shaw Moore's son, died in a drunk car accident. And that's why Reverend Moore gets into this tragedy and banned music and dancing in this town. To save this town, Ren thinks organizing a dance party will be the only way to actually get it out from tragedy. However, Reverend Moore doesn’t approve the idea of having a dance party in this town. With the encouragement from Ren’s mother, Ren tries to convince Reverend Moore to have a dance party in the town. And he agrees with Ren’s suggestion to have one.

This musical is different than the last one Les Miserables; this one is more about the happy endings and the dances around the musical. Moreover, this musical contains more non-singing casts and non-singing parts in the whole play. For example, many of the adults in this musical are in the non-singing casts. Taking my character, Lulu,as an example, she is a non-singing cast in this musical; she is part of the adults, but there is no singing parts for her at all. In my understanding, this can further symbolise the town’s determination on no music and dance allowed at all; adults represent the power and authoritarian to the young people and to the law of banning music and dance. When adults are saying, not singing, the situation will become more serious and determined, and that’s why the play is not all sung-through. 

The themes that I think is important in this musical is family struggle. Ren, as a grown-up teenage from Chicago, his father and his mother had some issues and got separated from each other. As a result, his mother was forced to move to Bomont with Ren’s aunt and uncle. The separation between his parents influenced him and his hatred feelings toward his father. Furthermore, because of the family issue, he has problem of fit into the new town. He and his aunt and uncle have many obstacles to solve. Moreover, the separation between the parents leads him to become stubborn and obstinate in the story. However, with Ariel and his friend Willard’s accompany, he realises the importance of being open up to the world. Willard and Ariel help him to stand against the law. On the other hand, Ariel represents another theme of family struggle; Ariel’s family is more of a conservative family since she is the preacher’s daughter. Nevertheless, Ariel seeks for fun, freedom, and acceptance; she is a rebellious teenager. And that’s the reason why she dates with Chuck: she wants to loose control from her relationship rather than control it, and Chuck is the most dangerous man in the world. The family struggle comes when Reverend acknowledges Ariel has been dating with Chuck, and they had the big fight in the house; Shaw thinks Ariel cannot put her happiness with a reckless man Chuck. Yet, Ariel thinks Shaw doesn’t think about her happiness and Shaw doesn’t understand her as before. 

Another theme from this story is freedom. As Ren moves to Bomont, he discovers that dancing and rock music are banned from the local laws. Moreover, as he gets to know Ariel and gets better relationship with her, Ren’s mom gets fired from her job. So to protect his family in Bomont, he has to fight for freedom and fight against the law and Reverend. In the last scene of Act I, Ren has the idea of fighting back. At first, his friends don’t think his idea will ever work for the changing in law. However, with his passion and his constant persuasion, his friends stand up and try to fight with him for the freedom of rock music and dancing. To show this in our performance, this, at first, is shown by everyone is sitting down and sneering at his idea. Nevertheless, as he attempts to persuade the students, they start to stand up and arrange it as a team to fight against. This dance is really powerful because it shows the changes in students: from disbelieve in Ren to truly believe in him to change to town’s law. 

Personally, I think the sets organise really well. When they are at the Church, the chair will be set on the stage right, and when Shaw and Vi are at their house, the table and chair will be set on the stage left. This actually differentiates the scenes changes in different places. Moreover, the lighting is changing all the time. With different scenes, the lighting can be varied as well. For example, when Ariel and her friends at the burger blast, the lighting is pinkish to represent the eagerness of wanting a hero and the eagerness of dreaming of it. Moreover, when Rusty is spending time and singing with Willard at the bar, the lighting is pinkish as well, but this time, it emphasizes the romantic and love relationship between Rusty and Willard. Moreover, the lighting for Ren and Ariel is pinkish as well when they sing together. 

I like Aaron’s character the most because he acts Reverend Moore in a great understanding. Reverend Moore is a serious, strict, and righteous character in the musical; in public, he is the famous, rigour, and respectful preacher and leader. In public, his mood is steady, and serious. Aaron shows this with straight-up back, staring eye-contact, and fastidious hair style. Also, in his talking, his voice is calm, loud, and clear. “ let the lord hear your voice.” However, his voice changes when he faces his wife,Vi and Ariel. He becomes even more serious when he talks to them to show the power he holds in the family. Moreover, there is a change in emotion and talk voice in the performance in Reverend Moore. When Ren goes to him, he is so pissed off because he thinks that Ren has no power to control what he’s doing, but, he changes his mind after the talk. When he is in the church, he becomes softer and inclusive.