Fort Wayne’s South Side High School is celebrating its 100th Anniversary with a special multigenerational production of Meredith Wilson’s play, The Music Man, which opens this Friday evening. Drawing on his own memories of the school’s focus on the fine arts, theater teacher Kirby Volz (South Side graduating class of 1976) wanted to find, “as many people who could participate in the show as possible.” To that end, he connected with other alumni and recruited younger students from the system’s feeder schools, to fill the nearly 70 positions on stage, back stage and in the orchestra pit. Here WBOI’s Julia Meek speaks with Volz, and Gaby Gonzalez, a sophomore student playing the role of Marian “The Librarian” Paroo, about the shape their presentation of this iconic story will take and the spirit it carries with it. WBOI Artcentric is brought to you by WBOI’s own Julia Meek and Ben Clemmer. Our theme music is “Me voy pal campo'' by KelsiCote. Our production assistants are Monica Blankenship, Meihkai Bowers, Steve Mullaney, Kyle Norbeck, Diahmynd Thomas, Mikaela Veltum, and Sydney Wagner.

WBOI's Julia Meek has contributed to 89.1 WBOI on- and off-air for over thirty years. Now, her arts and culture reporting can be heard for the first time as a podcast available wherever podcasts are found. Look for WBOI Artcentric.

Julia Meek's arts and culture interviews heard on 89.1 WBOI.

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