By: Cara Latham
MANSFIELD It may be normal for students at Northern Burlington County Regional High School to design spring musical sets depicting famous locales such as New York City, Paris or other faraway destinations.
But this year, students are bringing their spring musical even closer to home, with a Columbus backdrop for their production of "Godspell."
Lauri DiDonato, the director, said the play is "the Gospel of Matthew from the Bible, Broadway style."
"We have set our ‘Godspell’ in the town of Columbus, where our school is," she said. The setting will be "familiar to the community. That’s kind of cool and different."
During the play, Jesus Christ comes to town and teaches the people there how to live in the community and how they should treat each other, she said.
Most of the scenes are from the Bible, "so it’s Jesus teaching them about loving their neighbor, how to live among people, and get long," she said.
Each of the songs, including the popular "Day By Day," go with the different parables, she said.
"The hardest thing about directing "Godspell" is that it is very open to interpretation," she said. Nonetheless, she said, it gives them the opportunity to be creative.
"I think the cool thing will be that when the people come from the community to see it, it will look very familiar to them," she said. "We’ve also worked in a little bit of Fort Dix and McGuire (Air Force Base)."
And the students are having lots of fun with the songs because they have a rock-‘n’-roll feel to them, she said.
Even though Easter Sunday is just a week after the show, Ms. DiDonato said they did not pick the musical because of that.
"We picked it because we had the talent for it, and because of the short amount of time we had" to put the show together, she said.
All 36 members in the cast, except sophomore Tyler Schneckenberger, who is playing Jesus, Jeff Scolley, a junior, who portrays Judas, and Steve Schillaci, freshman, who is John the Baptist, will use their own names for the play as well, she said.
Ms. DiDonato said she hopes the community will come out to enjoy the show, which starts at 7:30 p.m. on March 29, 30 and 31. Tickets are $8 for students and seniors, and $10 for adults, reserved seating only. "The unique spin on Godspell being set in our community of Columbus is something you won’t want to miss," she said. "It’s going to be very unique to our town."

