‘You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown’ at Tioga Central High School

Charles Schultz’ Peanuts will be on stage Friday, Jan. 25 and Saturday, Jan. 26 in “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” brought to you by the Tioga Central High School (TCHS) Drama Club. 

Rehearsals for this Broadway musical began in late October. This is one of the largest theater groups in TCHS Drama Club history with 24 cast members and five crewmembers, said Director Alex MacDonald who’s accompanied with Assistant Director Heather Matthews. 

“Musical theater is such a great way to incorporate different art styles and to include different students,” MacDonald said. Some of the cast joined to act, some joined to sing, with this show, the two get pushed to the center with musical theater he said. 

This is Tioga Central’s first Broadway show since its production of Grease in 2010. “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” is organized like a collection of Peanuts comic strips with all of the usual characters. 

“The students have been eating it up,” MacDonald said. “They’ve learned quickly, and they’re learning on their own.”

Leads Josh Coyne, playing Charlie Brown, and Maggie Engelbert, Lucy, are both singing in their second musicals and are enjoying the scale of this Broadway show. Coyne is singing center stage for the first time as a lead, and Engelbert is embracing this performance, as her dream is to peruse theater after high school. “Mr. MacDonald directing really changed the game,” Engelbert said. 

One change he has brought to the stage is a live pit, composed of three professional musicians, including him. In past TCHS musicals, the performers and crew had to be in perfect synchronicity to time the musical recordings with the acting. 

This musical serves as a homecoming for MacDonald because he grew up on the TCHS stage, he said. After graduating in 2008 and returning years later to teach, he is “so pumped to be back, it’s different being on this side of the stage.” 

The auditorium at TCHS has received some new equipment debuting this weekend as well. The stage is adorned with all-new curtains, lighting and rigging to make the experience more spectacular. MacDonald hopes that with a new group of students excited about musical theater, the department will be able to put on larger shows in the years to come. 

“Big things are coming,” he says. “I think that we’re in a growth phase in our department and I’m excited to see that.”

Three months of hard work will be shown this Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m. Tickets to the musical will be sold at the door: $7 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and free for children under 5.