Beetlejuice

New Hartford’s Masque presents the musical Beetlejuice Jr. with shows on November 1st at 2:00pm and 7:00pm and November 2nd at 2:00pm. Don’t miss out on watching this family-friendly comedy.

“It’s a show about death” is not an understatement; the musical explores the afterlife and what it’s like from the perspective of a  recently deceased couple.

“Beetlejuice shows how a young character, Lydia Deetz struggles with the loss of her dead mom Emily Deetz,” Ella Sullivan, who plays Beetlejuice in the musical, said. “Later on in the story Lydia discovers that her house is haunted and meets a recently deceased couple named Adam and Barbara. And the devious ghost Beetlejuice who loves to hear screaming calls it ‘that beautiful sound.’ In the show we see Lydia trying to see her mom again in the nether-world, she soon accepts the fact that she is gone, and everything slowly puts itself in place and gets better in the end.” 

The Masque program provides more than just an opportunity to  perform onstage: it’s a place where people can be themselves and have fun doing what they love with friends.

“My favorite part is either dressing-up or being able to go out and have fun dressing up and acting with friends,” Maggie MacTurk, a student involved in Masque, said.

Opening night can be nerve-racking for the staff, backstage crew and even the cast. It’s a lot of hard work to put on a show in a short amount of time and remember all the lines and cues. 

“Sometimes I do get nervous before I perform,” Gemma Bradley said. “To deal with that stress, normally I take deep breaths and remind myself how much fun I have when I’m on stage.” Not only the students, but also the staff involved in the masque program put a lot of time and effort into this musical. It definitely isn’t easy to put a musical together, but it helps having rehearsals every day after school until 5:00pm.

 “Opening night is exciting and it’s all up to the kids that night,” said Ms. Mojave, the director of Beetlejuice, who has been loved and appreciated by hundreds of students in years past.