York Drama will perform James and the Giant Peach, whose score is written by Tony nominated composers Pasek and Paul, with full orchestration for the first time ever this November. The show, which features fun characters such as the LadyBug and Spider, promises an escape into a wonderful, whimsical adventure filled world.

However, after accidentally dropping the ingredients for the potion onto a barren tree, James finds himself with an enormous peach, inhabited by human-sized, intelligent invertebrates – among them, a Grasshopper, Centipede, Earthworm, Spider and Ladybug.

“This is truly a show for both young and old. It’s fun and magical for the children, yet wonderfully poignant for the adults” said Co-Director John Forsythe.

James and the Giant Peach, while obviously very entertaining, is also quite a challenging production.

“All of the vocals are hard and the score is extremely difficult. In fact, it is the most challenging score York has ever approached,” said Rebecca Marianetti, the Musical Theatre Director at York.

The cast affirms that impersonating and interacting with invertebrates is equally challenging.

“My biggest challenges have been getting into the character of James and interacting with the bugs – because no one really has experience speaking with bugs. You definitely have to step out of your comfort zone,” said junior Tatum Langley.

Fellow cast member Emily Landreth, junior, echoed the thoughts of Langley: “It’s difficult to play the speaking extremes of my character, the Matron Nurse,” said Landreth.

Fortunately, York has an excellent accompanist – Erin Pettitt, who is a professional musician. Pettitt, a Northern Illinois graduate, is also a voice and piano teacher at York.

“We are so fotunate to have her on our team. Mrs. Pettitt is amazing” said Marianetti.

This play is particularly exciting because it is the high school premiere of James and the Giant Peach with full orchestration; that is, with a sixteen member pit orchestra.

“Playing for the musical is fun because we get to play showtune music that we do not play in Orchestra. But the score is also very difficult because we have to learn techniques such as fiddling” said junior Ella Lee.

The composers, Pasek and Paul, actually came to York last year to speak with students about the 2014-2015 school year production – Dogfight. The Tony nominated composers are known for their work with musicals relevant to young adults. Currently, they are working on composing music for Dear Evan Hansen, which “focuses on the titular high school student who’s at the center of a misunderstanding about his relationship to a troubled classmate” said the magazine Variety.

James and the Giant Peach, with costumes designed both by York Students – namely, Becca Rogers, Anna Triska and a New York designer – is awaited with a great deal of anticipation.