Post Falls High stages first musical since 2022 with student cast

Post Falls High School brought its musical program back to the stage with The Drowsy Chaperone Jr., a 60-minute family-friendly Broadway Junior show that opened at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Post Falls High School auditorium. The production marked the school’s first musical since spring 2022 and put 27 students on stage with a crew of about 20 behind the scenes.

The show is built on the Tony-winning comedy The Drowsy Chaperone, a satire of Golden Age musicals that follows a lonely bachelor playing his favorite record and imagining a glamorous 1920s Broadway production. For Post Falls, the appeal went beyond the plot. The cast mixed old-timey song and dance, gangsters, pastry chefs, whimsy and wordplay into a compact format designed for young performers, giving students a chance to handle comedy, timing and live audience energy in under an hour.

Senior Destanie Dunbar played the title role and described the character as carefree and reflective. Senior Markas Sofaly said he was drawn to the show’s humor and to the way it brings the audience into the action, a quality he recognized from the earlier school production of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Problem. Those elements matter in a program where some students have spent more time on stagecraft than in the spotlight, and where this show opened the door for first-time performers as well as experienced ones.

The production also marked a first for director and choreographer Jared McDougall, who is directing a musical for the first time while also listed as a teacher at Post Falls High in the district’s staff directory. Eastern Washington University accompanist Beth Rainey served as musical director, helping guide a show that gives students a fast-moving introduction to live performance, ensemble work and the discipline needed to carry a full production.

The return comes after a four-year gap in the school’s spring musical calendar. In April 2022, Post Falls High staged Into the Woods Jr. with 20 student actors and 20 student technicians, a turnout that makes this year’s larger cast a notable step forward for the program. In a high school listed at 1,658 students and 73 teachers, that kind of participation signals a theater program with enough momentum to draw both veterans and new faces.

The show also lands in a fast-growing city. Post Falls had 38,485 residents in the 2020 census and an estimated 45,800 by July 1, 2024, according to Census figures. In that setting, a student musical is more than an evening of entertainment. It is a public sign that school arts in Post Falls are active again, building confidence, leadership and teamwork while giving families across Kootenai County a reason to gather around young local talent.