DRIPPING SPRINGS  — There is a time to dance and for several students at Dripping Springs High School, that time is almost here. Under the direction of theatre director Coy Branscum, DSHS is putting on the production of the “Footloose The Musical” Jan. 23-27.

“Footloose” tells the story of Ren McCormack, a city kid who moves to the small town of Bomont, only to discover that dancing has been banned following a tragic accident, according to the DSHS Facebook event page. Determined to shake things up, McCormack challenges the town’s strict rules and the authority of Reverend Shaw Moore, whose grief has shaped the town’s rigid ways. Along the way, McCormack rallies his classmates, falls for the rebellious Ariel Moore, and sparks a movement that reminds Bomont of the power of joy, healing and connection.

More than 60 students, who are part of the cast and crew of the DSHS musical, have been working countless hours on and behind the stage since October of last year to perfect the costumes, sets, scenes and more. Rehearsals were initially held three to four days a week, but since then, beginning in January, the students’ dedication to their craft has intensified to rehearse every day until opening night.

“We’ve got 60-something students involved officially on the project, in addition to students who are more unofficially involved. We’ve got another student part of marketing for our show, so putting content out on social media apps, like TikTok, Instagram [and] Facebook [and] doing media outreach, creating the poster design and the marketing package that we send out to people, creating the playbill that people get when they come to the show, and then, of course, the countless hours of design and concept creation that go into the show that we’ve been working on since we picked it last February,” explained Branscum.

The theatre director went on to say that he often tells his students that the goal is to make this look easy. He credits the village that the students, parents and community at large have created for making a show of this size possible.

“They hear me say, pretty regularly, that theater is more fun with friends and you hear people say all the time, ‘It takes a village.’ Well, I could not think of a better village of students and parents to be doing this insane, wonderful work with,” Branscum said. “We really do have a small army of people who would do anything to make this experience great for each other and for this community. And I couldn’t think of more fulfilling work to be doing and for better people to do it with.”

As a component of that real commitment and hard work, Branscum’s ambitious dream has come true of incorporating a real truck into the show. Students in the Technical Theatre class, joined by those part of the welding class, overhauled a 1976 Chevy C10 Bonanza truck — purchased by the Dripping Springs Theatre Booster Club to become a stage-ready vehicle for “Footloose.” The truck, which spent decades at a family farm in Milano, Texas, has a new life as a prop that can be rented or purchased to fund future theater productions at Dripping Springs public schools.

Updates to the truck included removing the engine, draining the radiator, creating new tires and splitting the truck bed into two parts so students can sit in and stand on the truck as it rolls onto the stage. Stage-ready vehicles like this are a rarity in local theater, due to the required time and expenses, but DSHS made it work.

“I brought in my friend Becky Sagan … She’s a local carpenter and a fitness trainer who has experience building stuff for Broadway productions. I invited her to be the project manager on the truck. All I told her was that I want a real truck, I want it to be usable on stage and that was about the parameters that she got. She was assigned a group of [students] who were interested in being a part of this project and they had been working on it all semester,” he explained. “Really, [Sagan] has just been the guiding force, but she has done this in a way so that the students are the ones getting to problem-solve and come up with the ideas. She’s just been there to guide them and help make sure they stay safe, but really, it has been a bulk of the work on the kids — it was probably a group of eight or 10 kids —  who have worked on this project with her.”

Directing the show is even more special to Branscum as he, who graduated from DSHS in 2011, did the same musical his senior year, which also happened to be the year that the current high school building opened.

“‘Footloose’ was actually the very first musical, the very first show, we did in that new auditorium space back in 2011 and it’s now been about 15 years. As I was looking at the season for this year, I thought, ‘Wow, what a great way to celebrate how far we’ve come.’ Back when I was doing this, Dripping Springs Middle School was our high school when we just had a cafetorium stage and very limited resources,” Branscum shared. “Now, to be in this 650–plus seat theater with a 50-feet from proscenium arch to proscenium arch — our stage is massive — and to have a two-story fly rail system, we’ve come a long way. I thought, how cool to honor the legacy of the people who came before me and show just how far we’ve come in the 15 years since I was a student here.”

Following his time as a student at DSHS, Branscum went on to get a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theatre performance and then spent about a decade in the industry working as a performer for companies around the country, where he was able to network with people from around the world. He eventually made his way back to his roots in Dripping Springs, where he has now been the theatre director at DSHS for almost two years.

“After about a decade of getting to live my dream, this job posting became available and all I could think about was my director, Rachael Koske, and the impact that she had on this program during her tenure and everything that she built. I just had this realization that I felt it was time for a new challenge and a new chapter,” he shared. “I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my time than back home in my community, training the next generation of young artists to be even stronger and even more courageous than I was taught to be by people like Rachael Koskei, who are still very impactful and pleasant in my life today. Honestly, I’m just here trying to continue the legacy of excellence that I was fortunate enough to be a part of as a student.”

While the DSHS Theatre Department does have a budget from state and federal funding that is allocated through the district, a majority of its funding comes from community donations. This includes ticket sales and fundraisers organized by the Boosters Club — two of those being a silent auction and hometown carnival before the upcoming show.

Attendees will be able to bid on different items, including a guitar signed by Kenny Loggins, at the silent auction. Then, this year, a carnival is one of the newest fundraisers; for an hour before the show, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. and then, at the matinee on Sunday from 12:30-1:30 p.m., a carnival will be happening in the courtyard right outside the lobby.

“That’s going to include traditional carnival games, like being able to pie an admin in the face, we’re going to have a petting zoo [and] there’s going to be a lot of cotton candy and popcorn, all the things that you would expect from a carnival, going on for an hour before the show. It’s those kinds of immersive experiences that we lean on to help fundraise and really get the community excited about what we’re doing,” Branscum said. “That’s how we pay for everything. That and ticket sales … Especially with the carnival and such a touching, heartwarming show like Footloose, this is not one that people are going to want to miss.”

Tickets are available for $25 for adults and $15 for students for DSHS’ “Footloose The Musical,” which will take place Jan. 23-27. To purchase tickets, visit dshstheater.ludus.com/index.php.

Keep up-to-date on the DSHS Theatre Department at bit.ly/3BYIdFG.