With opening night on Friday, November 11 at 7 pm, Cotter High School will present a well-known musical, West Side Story.

West Side Story is a modern-day Romeo and Juliet that takes place in the streets of New York. Two gangs, the sharks and the jets, battle for control of the field. Although, the situation becomes complicated when a member of the Jets and a member of the Sharks fall in love with each other.

Mark Roeckers, the coordinator and director of the play chose the musical West Side Story because several Cotter families requested it for this year. Roeckers says, “Along with families requesting, this show has a good number of male parts that needed to be filled, and we have a lot of boys in the musical this year, so it worked out very well.”

Roeckers also says, “This is a tough show to do. It is tough musically, vocally, and the context is difficult, but at this point we are ahead of schedule and ready for this weekend.”

The leads in this year’s musical include Jane Koll as Maria, Ryan Ortega as Tony, Ben Matzke as Riff, Gina Pham as Anita, and Minjay Kim as Bernardo.

Ryan Ortega, also known as “Tony”, is confident it will be a great musical.

“The musical is going pretty well.  It usually comes down to the end and becomes stressful during the last practices before we perform, but it always comes together. Everybody seems to know their lines and actions; I am sure that we will have three great performances!”

Along with the opening night on November 11, the show will be presented on Saturday, November 12, at 7pm, and Sunday, November 13, at 3 pm. Come to the St. Cecelia theater for a great show, West Side Story.