Not many kids volunteer to scrub floors. At least not to practice their acting skills.
Haley Halverson is the exception.
“I was kind of always a dramatic little kid,” Haley said. “I would watch the ‘Cinderella’ movie and I would make my mom have me scrub the floors and I would try and get her to yell at me so I could pretend to be Cinderella.
“I’d always kind of wanted to be in a play when I was 9 so I kind of went for it. Since I had success with it, I just figured I’d keep auditioning and I keep getting to be involved in some really cool stuff.”
Haley’s latest role is in “Seussical” the musical, set for Thursday through Sunday at Midland Lutheran College. She is the only member of the 19-person cast who is not a Midland Lutheran College student.
Haley, a home-school high school student from Fremont, took advantage of open auditions.
“I was pretty much set for ‘I’m going to go in and audition and if I’m lucky, I might be able to sweep the floors after the production or something,’” Haley said. “Then they actually let me in.”
The 15-year-old with a bubbly personality was cast for the role of Miss Gertrude McFuzz, a one-feathered bird who she said is very self conscious and has a crush on Horton the elephant.
While the part only required Haley to learn a few spoken lines, she also participates in three songs.
Practices for the musical began Jan. 5. They’ve continued five days a week since them and last about four hours each.
“The first few days, you get home and you’re all wired up because it was so much fun,” Haley said. “It’s the kind of thing where it’s so fun that you leave and you’re tired, but you still can’t wait to get back in the morning.”
Being the only high school student in the play, Haley said she was nervous before rehearsals began. Her anxious feelings soon changed.
“At first I was thinking, ‘I’ll have to sit by myself and not really talk to (the Midland students) because they’re older,’” Haley said. “But they are so nice and ready to just work on the play. They’ve been really awesome.”
Rehearsing for a musical has been a learning experience for Haley.
“You go in and some people are over in one corner singing and some people are dancing and some people are going through lines,” she said. “It gets pretty crazy.”
Thursday’s opening performance of “Seussical” won’t be the first time Haley has performed at Midland. Her first play at age 9 also was on the MLC campus. She played a mother elephant in the cast made up of kids around her own age.
Haley, the daughter of Chuck and Colleen Halverson, also has participated in Fremont Community Players productions, Spoudazo and a drama camp in Omaha.
“It if wasn’t for that camp, I probably would have been a little bit more intimidated by the Midland thing because it’s run a lot of the same way. You’re going from one thing to the next,” she said.
This past Advent season, Haley read the part of Mary during worship services at First Lutheran Church.
“I’d always been kind of the comedy person when I was ever cast, so it was really cool to be able to have something a little bit more serious,” Haley said of reading the monologues.
When not participating in theater, dance classes or volunteering through the Fremont Area Christian Homeschool Co-op, Haley is busy keeping up with her school work. She has been homeschooled since preschool.
“Pretty much you get up in the morning and sit down at your kitchen table and do all of your school work. There’s some stuff where you can learn it off the computer,” said Haley, whose family also includes brothers, Jonas, 11, and Eli, 4.
The homeschool groups meets every Friday which allows for the students to take some classes together. Haley and a group of students are currently taking economics. At a different time, Haley’s father is teaching them chemistry.
Haley also is taking an evening intro to psychology class at Metropolitan Community College.
“At this point I pretty much do school and do the play,” she said.
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