GREAT Theatre Company Presents “Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 The Musical” [VIDEO]

ST. CLOUD - The GREAT Theatre Company's season is underway, and they are ready for their opening night of 'Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 The Musical.' Stage manager Linda McGowan says the play will be fun and educational.

'9 to 5' is an educational piece in that if you weren't born or around in that 70's as a woman working in the workforce, you have no idea what it was really like for those women working with the men at that time. We're educating people we're entertaining them because it's funny.

McGowan says they rehearsed this play differently from previous plays. Instead of learning the songs and dances separately, the cast has been learning the play in separate pieces, and then putting those pieces together.

I think that has really been a good process. We're so tight right now at the beginning of tech week it's unbelievable. There's good energy, there's a lot of good energy in this cast and incredible talent.

One aspect of the show that will impress the audience is the lighting. Lighting designer Aaron Porter says working on the lighting for this Broadway style play has been fun. His favorite scene, when it comes to lighting, is in act two.

It's just a big, no stops, Broadway production number. There's Violet standing onstage, and a men's chorus around her. It's just an old school production number. It sounds great. We've timed out the lights with the music, so there's things that happen in time with the music from the lighting world.

With the lighting done, and the cast being ready for the show, McGowan says everyone is pumped to perform.

The cast is pretty pumped to get this show on the road. It's more gratifying at this point to do it for an audience than to continue to do it just for your stage manager and director.

'Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 The Musical' first hits the stage on Friday, September 5th at 7:30 p.m.

Other shows are as follows:

Saturday, Sept 6 at 7:30pm
Sunday, Sept 7 at 2:00pm
Friday, Sept 12 at 7:30pm
Saturday, Sept 13 at 7:30pm
Sunday, Sept 14 at 2:00pm
Friday, Sept 19 at 7:30pm
Saturday, Sept 20 at 7:30pm
Sunday, Sept 21 at 2:00pm