Juan Diego Catholic High and St. John the Baptist student-actors know a little bit about Whoville as they share the story of friendship, loyalty and love in their performance of the young theater audience version of “Seussical the Musical.”

The family-friendly show will be performed at 7 p.m., Nov. 17 and 18 and at 4 p.m., Nov. 19 in the Juan Diego Catholic High School auditorium, 300 E. 11800 South. Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students.

“The libretto is full of singing and dance so it’s a great piece to have a larger ensemble and to be able to include 30 of our younger students on campus,” said new theater director Sophia Valdez Davis. “Everybody is excited.”

Senior Saxton McKnight will play the Cat in the Hat “and he’s just phenomenal,” Valdez Davis said.

The storyline brings in favorite Dr. Seuss characters, as the Cat in the Hat narrates the story of Horton the Elephant, who discovers a speck of tiny people called the Whos. He is loyal in protecting them and in guarding an abandoned egg that has been left in his care by Mayzie La Bird. While facing ridicule and danger, his friend Gertrude McFuzz never loses faith in him and together, they welcome everyone into their community.

Joining McKnight is Valdez Davis’ son, Ayden, who was cast by another member of the directing team. He will play Horton. It’s his return to the stage after four years of being on the tech side of the theater.

The production comes following the advanced theater students’ performance at the 47th annual Shakespeare high school competition Oct. 5-7 in Cedar City. 

Eleven actors are set to perform an ensemble piece “Much Ado About Nothing,” which they selected; several students will compete in individual events as well as six tech crew students also will take part in the Tech Olympics. About 10 students will perform in dance and 10 student-musicians will participate in the orchestra competition.

As well as competing, the student group will see Utah Shakespeare Festival performances of William Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” and “The Play That Goes Wrong” by Henry Lewis, Henry Shields and Jonathan Sayer.

In December, Juan Diego students will help St. John the Baptist students in their production of “How to Enchant a Bookshop.” The free performance will be at 7 p.m., Dec. 12 in Juan Diego’s auditorium.

In the play, the owner learns running the bookshop is harder than anticipated when a fairy-in-training helps by bringing story characters, such as Cinderella, Don Quixote, Beatrix Potter’s Two Bad Mice, to life to assist the owner. 

“The older students will help with the middle school students’ dialogues and monologues and show them how to deliver on stage and how to stand and move with purpose. My advanced tech students will help teach lighting and sound. One of my specialties is hair and makeup design for stage so we’ll be doing some of those classes for the students so that they’re ready for shows when they move on to high school and if they do any community theater,” Valdez Davis said.

In addition, the Soaring Eagle Drama Club, which is an after-school program for fourth- through eighth-grade students directed by St. John faculty Gina Parker and Andrea Arnold, will perform “Lion King, Jr.” in February 2024. Juan Diego tech students will help with the production.

In March 2024, Juan Diego’s thespians will compete in the region contest and will host state in mid-April. They also will perform in a yet-to-be-announced spring show.

Valdez Davis, who has her Bachelor’s in Theater Education from the University of Utah, has taught pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade on the Skaggs Campus before moving into the high school theater role that former director Joe Crnich vacated. She also coaches middle school and high school cheer as well as teaches beginning drama, advanced drama, beginning tech and advanced tech classes in the high school.

She has performed for Pioneer Theatre Company, Hale Center Theatre, The Grand Theatre, Sundance Summer Theatre, Salt Lake Acting Company and others before raising her family. Since then, she has returned this past summer to perform in “In the Heights” at both West Valley Performing Arts and the Grand Theatre.

“It’s been a whirlwind situation for me to jump right back in,” Valdez Davis said. “I’ve been utilizing all of my theater friends and community and they jumped in to help. We did a big unit that first week on how to do an in-person and virtual audition and the difference between the two. A lot of my friends sent me all their audition tapes and even the blooper reels that the students thought were hilarious and saw that even professionals can make mistakes. It’s been a fun return to theater.” λ