Balloon Boy Taking Off

Jack Vander Veer and Hannah Hacker rehearse for the musical Balloon Boy, premiering at Monarch on November 6.

Riley Ellico

Jack Vander Veer and Hannah Hacker rehearse for the musical Balloon Boy, premiering at Monarch on November 6.

Does the play Balloon Boy: The Musical sound familiar? It must not because it is the newest play the theater department is producing this year. This is the story of the famous hoax in October 2009, about the boy who drifted away in a  weather balloon in Fort Collins. The story shows how we are all intrigued with the idea of celebrity and sensationalism.

“People were glued to their screens, watching. The family with the son did this because they wanted to become famous,” Gwendolyn Lucas-Doctor said, adding, “We were able to meet and talk to the writer of the play and tell him we were from Colorado and he said that we could produce it.”

Lucas-Doctor is the main director for the play Balloon Boy. Monarch will be the first school and the first cast to have ever produced this play in its entirety, making the production a world wide premiere.

The writer of this play, Bill Recce, is from New York and started writing the play when he was about 13 years old.

“He wanted to write the play to show the over-sensationalism of the media and how everyone wants to be a celebrity and the lengths they will go to to get there,” Doctor said.

Opening night is on November 6th, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm in the auditorium. There are also showings on Friday  and Saturday evenings as well as Saturday, November 8 at 2:00 pm.