SVI Alpine SVI Radio Interview: Star Valley High School Musical

Tami Nielson, Director for the Star Valley High School Musical, was joined in the SVI Radio studio with seniors John Townsend, Brannen Fullmer, Ainsley Bowman and Hallie Hokanson, to promote this week’s performances of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Performances on free to attend on Thursday and Friday at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday at 2:00 and 7:00.

(0:00) Weekday wake up on SVI radio swift 98 and the spur learning more about this year’s star buddy high (0:05) school musical presenting joseph and the amazing technicolor dream coat it’s going to be thursday (0:11) friday and saturday seven o’clock p.m each night two o’clock of course on saturday all absolutely (0:17) free as always i have four seniors as part of the cast that’s here some of the lead roles (0:22) and also director tammy nelson in studio guys let’s start with the cast john we’ll start with (0:26) you i understand that you get the honor of being joseph actually uh in this and so tell me a little (0:32) about the role of joseph and and for those i know a lot of people are very familiar with this with (0:37) this musical specifically but tell us about it what what happens here yeah they’re probably (0:41) familiar because of the bible story but joseph is i’m pretty sure the youngest out of 11 brothers (0:47) well he’s the 12th brother and he gets sold into slavery into egypt because his brothers don’t (0:52) like the coat that he gets from his father so the whole musical it’s i mean it’s it’s been super fun (0:59) to play that character he has um he has a lot of fun songs and he’s i mean he i think he’s the (1:07) coolest out of 11 brothers for sure so i’m excited to play i love it how did you prepare for for this (1:13) role because it is i mean you’re talking about joseph in egypt i mean it’s it’s a bible icon (1:18) like you said so how do you prepare to play that person a lot a lot of practice at home uh i’ve (1:24) spent a lot of after hours practicing the music watching donny osmond play his version um has (1:29) been very helpful for me absolutely very cool uh also brennan fulmer in studio brennan you get to (1:35) play levi tell us about levi and your character all right so i am one of those mean brothers that (1:41) gets to throw john or i should say joseph into the pit and we sell him off to slavery (1:45) and it’s a ton of fun and one thing i love about this show so much is there’s tons of different (1:50) genres of like music in it and styles of songs and i get to sing one more angel in heaven and (1:55) it’s like a country western twangy song and it’s so fun because the brothers are just bouncing off (2:00) the walls and goofy like all the time so it’s been a lot of fun and that’s what i do i just sing (2:05) that one song and it’s grand old time brennan you’re one of the seniors that have been involved (2:09) in the musical for a handful of years now what is it like to be a senior now uh and and be doing (2:15) this for the last time in high school oh it’s surreal i mean i’ve been doing this my first (2:19) musical was mary poppins i played the role of michael banks and i was seven at the time turned (2:25) eight during the show and now that i’m a senior it’s just kind of surreal honestly thinking back (2:30) on all my different performances and shows and it’s just been so fun and i’m happy i’ve stuck (2:34) with it and yeah awesome awesome all right we also have ainsley bowman in studio ainsley you’re (2:39) one of the the narrators or understand an egypt narrator all right so tell us what what is the (2:45) role of the narrator what do you do in the musical yeah so as a narrator we get to kind (2:49) of move the story along we get to kind of interact um with the ensemble and all the other different (2:55) characters we get to dance with them and um kind of keep the story going so it’s a lot of fun because (3:00) we get to be a part of a lot of like the fun group numbers so it always like it’s just so much fun (3:05) and keeps me on my toes absolutely love it so you guys have been putting in just a couple hours (3:09) to get ready for this performance to say the least what is the rehearsal schedule been like (3:14) for you guys to get ready for this yeah so we um rehearse every day after school till around six (3:19) and starting this week we’re gonna go after six we’re starting tech week so um we’re definitely (3:24) putting lots of hours in and i’m super excited to see um how all those hard-worked hours um really (3:31) you know contribute to the quality and the um you know just the grand old scheme of things and how (3:36) our show goes and you haven’t just started this last couple of weeks you’ve been going since early (3:41) january right yeah uh-huh fantastic what was been the the hardest part to get ready for the show (3:49) what’s been the most difficult um i would say vocally it’s been really hard um there’s been (3:54) a lot of songs that have really stretched me um as a singer and as a vocalist so it’s definitely (3:59) taken lots of time on my own with my voice teacher working on songs and preparing because we do do (4:05) a lot of singing so um like i said just lots of hours practicing awesome love it holly hoganson (4:11) also in studio holly also a narrator but the canaan narrator so holly what’s the difference between an (4:17) egyptian and a canaan narrator in this musical uh it’s kind of just where it takes place a lot of (4:22) the scenes that the brothers are in are what me and my sister do i’m very fortunate i get to play (4:27) split the role of a canaan narrator with my little sister payton and so that’s been so much fun but (4:32) so we kind of start and close the show and anytime the brothers are in it absolutely excellent and so (4:37) what’s been uh maybe the most uh what have you enjoyed the most about rehearsals oh heading (4:44) into this thing i love rehearsal so much i just think the people are so much fun um i the first (4:51) two years of high school i did basketball and that was so fun and then i switched over to the musicals (4:55) and it’s just been a whole other experience like everyone is so friendly and there’s so many (5:00) backstage moments that we have that i just cherish forever because we just goof off but we’re quiet (5:06) we’re quiet backstage but we do like to we have our fair share of goofing off i think tammy can (5:10) attest to that absolutely so again that’s john townsend brandon fulmer ainsley bowman holly (5:16) hoganson in studio all part of the cast for joseph and the amazing technicolor dream coat it’s (5:22) thursday friday and saturday seven o’clock p.m each night two o’clock also on saturday (5:27) for the matinee director tammy nelson in studio tammy these are just four of what is an incredible (5:32) cast and crew they were just telling me just just cast you have almost a hundred students involved (5:38) in this thing yes between the cast and the crew we have about a hundred students that are involved (5:46) on stage backstage up in the light booth all kinds of different responsibilities that kids have taken (5:53) and some kids taking on more than one responsibility building sets acting they (6:00) just they do it all and so this is a long time and a lot of preparation to put this whole thing (6:06) together tell us how you settled on this this musical specifically when you were looking through (6:10) options so joseph has been my one of my very favorite musicals for about 30 years i was in (6:19) it for the first time in 1992 then performed again in it in the early 2000s i helped the (6:26) children’s chorus the last time the high school did it so this will be my fourth production of (6:30) joseph and it’s just one that i’ve always loved um i wanted to make sure that it came to our high (6:39) school to star valley again it’s been many years since we did the show and i felt like the the (6:44) valley was ready for it again now this is uh i understand your sixth year as director of the of (6:51) the star valley high school musical is that correct yes what has stood out to you about (6:54) this group this year that you’ve had for this year’s production well they’re huge they’re a (6:59) humongous group um and i really wanted with joseph to be able to feature as many kids as possible (7:08) so not only are there 12 brothers but 11 of the brothers have a wife and jacob has a wife that (7:15) isn’t they’re not traditionally in the script but i wanted to be able to feature more kids (7:19) so we gave each brother and jacob a wife and and then with all of the different group numbers (7:26) we’re featuring different kids so that everybody’s mama has a chance to see them up front and center (7:31) i love that absolutely so why if you could summarize why should the community come out (7:36) and watch the musical this year i feel like joseph is just this huge extravaganza dance (7:43) music party from beginning to end it there’s never any downtime in this show there are a couple of (7:51) more tender and touching moments but they’re not downtime there is never a minute to be bored in (7:57) this show it’s colorful it’s bright it’s it’s fast paced fast moving and it just feels like a party (8:06) the whole time and there’s lots of confetti love that love that of course tammy uh every crew needs (8:13) a captain but every captain also needs a crew right so tell us about those in the high school (8:17) and around the school district who have helped you put this on yes i always tell everybody involved (8:22) that there is not one person on stage or off that is any more or less important than anybody else (8:28) because the crew can’t do what they do without a cast to do it for and the cast can’t do what they (8:34) do without a crew moving them along and helping them do it so um along with me i have uh gina (8:41) fulmer who’s the assistant director producer she does all the stuff that i hate to do and i do all (8:46) the stuff that she hates to do so we’re a pretty good team and we have tyson balls um who is our (8:52) set designer and brandon burnham’s lent a hand with him this year in getting our set built and (8:59) then we have uh jen um collard who is our costume manager and when you’re costuming 80 kids in two (9:08) or three costumes a piece it’s a lot of costume pieces to take care of we’ve had several moms (9:14) that have helped to sew costume pieces we’ve had several people to come in and help paint sets our (9:21) normal set painter wasn’t available this year so just a lot of people have stepped in to help (9:26) awesome now of course i also noticed that the saturday matinee showing will have a sign language (9:31) interpretation is that something new yes this year so we have had sign language interpretation (9:36) in the past um with just a few people but we’ve got people that are coming in from idaho falls (9:44) from utah to come and watch the show because it will be um done with really beautiful sign (9:51) language done we’ve already got our interpreters that are coming to rehearsals so that they’re (9:55) really prepared they’re they’ve been watching the rehearsals they’ve got the script um and it will (10:01) be just as enjoyable for the hearing impaired as it will for anybody else that’s there excellent (10:06) anything we missed that you want to mention today gosh i don’t think so i just i’m really excited (10:11) about this show if you’ve been around town and you’ve seen the poster it’s just so bright and (10:16) colorful and that’s exactly what this show is if you love the poster you’re gonna love the show (10:20) and even more perfect thursday friday saturday seven o’clock p.m with a two o’clock matinee (10:24) on saturday joseph and the amazing technicolor dream coat at star valley high school free (10:29) admission come out and support again joining me in studio students seniors in the cast (10:33) john townsend brendan fulmer ainsley bowman and hallie hoganson of course director tammy nelson (10:38) thank you guys so much look forward to seeing you on stage appreciate it thank you it’s weekday wake (10:42) up this morning on svi radio

SVI Radio Interview: Star Valley High School Musical

By Duke Dance

March 16, 2026