Young actors bring Jack Black film to stage

Sam Deck sees a lot of himself in Dewey Finn, the washed-up rock star-turned substitute teacher he plays in the Vanity Theater’s production of “School of Rock: The Musical.”

Like his character, Sam, 17, is a guitar player and wanted to show off his skills. Trying out for his first-ever theater performance, he was surprised to score the lead role.

“It’s challenging, but it’s really fun,” he said during a recent rehearsal. “I look forward to doing more shows in the future.”

An under-18 cast brings “School of Rock” to the Vanity stage over the next two weekends, directed by John P. Blair.

Performances kick off at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The show is a youth production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Broadway show based on the 2003 Jack Black film.

Blair heard about the Broadway version and pitched the show to the theater’s board after Webber released the rights for younger casts to perform it.

“He just likes to let young people know his work,” Blair said.

This is the musical’s Indiana’s premiere.

In the show, Finn poses as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school to earn a few extra bucks. Completely disinterested in academics, he makes up his own curriculum and transforms the class into a rock band.

Blowing his cover is principal Rosalie Mullins, portrayed by Vanity veteran Emmy Hale.

“She just starts off the school year just trying to make sure everything goes right so that way she can live up to the expectations she’s supposed to be and please the parents and the students,” explains Emmy, 16, an incoming CHS junior.

“And then Dewey shows up and it starts to fall apart, and everything goes crazy,” she adds.

Jaxon Cox, 13, is making his stage debut as guitar-playing student Zack Mooneyham.

Knowing his real-life guitar skills, Jaxon’s choir teacher encouraged him to try out.

As a director, Blair said he feeds off the energy beginners bring to the stage. He said the Vanity is always looking for new faces.

“They bring this non-jaded joy... because they’ve never done it before,” he said.

The show is a different experience for choreographer Lisa Kochert Warren.

Unlike other musicals, she said, “School of Rock” requires detailed attention to how actors move around the stage, half of them playing instruments.

“And most people would look at it and go, oh, that must have been really easy to do,” she said. “It is 10 million times harder to do this type of choreography than it is to do an actual dance that... you just put dance moves to it.”