JACKSON TWP — After many years acting, choreographing and helping direct theatre, high school senior Jocelyn Kavanagh of Cranberry Township has taken on the primary roles of director and choreographer for Seneca Valley Middle School's musical.

The show is “The Music Man” which will run this weekend in the intermediate high school auditorium.

The 18-year-old is completing this as her senior project for Seneca Valley High School.

She said she has been involved with the middle school musical before, as a student director for the last four years, but this year she wanted to increase her responsibility level.

“I started talking to the staff at school last year about choosing this for my senior project,” Kavanagh said. “Ms. Armor has been great about giving me the latitude and freedom to truly run the show. I really appreciate the trust the SV staff has put in me.”

Amanda Armor is an English teacher at Seneca Valley Senior High School.

“Jocelyn is the first, and only, student that Claire Barker (music director/ SVMS choral teacher) and I have allowed to take on this huge responsibility,” Armor said.

“Jocelyn's raw artistic talent, her unparalleled maturity, and her experience in our past productions ... as well as directing and choreography work at the Comtra Theatre, made Claire and I confident that she was up to the task this year.”

Kavanagh's resume to date is extensive.

Besides serving as student director for the SVMS musical for four years, she has been involved in Comtra Theatre and Act One Theatre School shows over the last five years, with increasing involvement.

In addition to roles in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Seussical,” “Narnia” and “The Little Mermaid,” she more recently began staging and helping direct shows such as “Shrek, the Musical,” “Willy Wonka,” “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Lion King.”

She directed “Honk!” in 2015 and “Aladdin” in 2016, both at Comtra, and served as choreographer for “Beauty and the Beast” and “Addams Family” earlier this year, also at Comtra. She directed and choreographed Comtra's “Little Shop of Horrors” in August.

The high school senior said she uses all of her free time directing.

“My approach transcends the traditional definition of directing,” Kavanagh said.

“I train my students (cast) to become not only better performers, but better individuals. They learn how to sing and act, and, more importantly, how to show compassion, how to listen, and how to be a part of the bigger picture.

“What I teach them is not limited to the stage; these skills are applicable to job interviews, public speaking, and general social interactions.”

She said she likes to direct because she likes to see each person's growth.

“Of course, I love to see the completion of my vision and hear the positive response, but the real reason I direct is to see the joy of someone else's accomplishment,” she said.

Though she said she has many great people helping her with the show, she has taken on many duties, from “blocking and choreography to set painting and sound design.”

“This is also consistent with most of my shows at Comtra,” she said. “My mother typically handles all the costumes, but I am responsible for everything else. It is a challenge, but it is also exciting having that level of control over the process.”

Kavanagh said throughout this experience she has been most surprised by the middle schoolers' reactions to her as an authority figure.

“Even though I am just about five years older than most of the middle school students, they treat me with the utmost respect, just as they do their middle school teachers,” Kavanagh noted.

She said she plans to pursue an engineering degree, though with her passion for the arts, she hopes to become a sound designer/engineer in the theatre, film or music industries.

After more than 80 total hours of rehearsal time this autumn, the middle school students and their director will raise the curtain on “The Music Man” at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

“We warm up the kids with different dances and try to have them focus on having fun to get rid of any nerves,” the young leader said.

The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Seneca Valley Intermediate High School auditorium,

Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students. The box office opens 45 minutes before each performance, but reservations are recommended. Visit www.SVMSmusical.com.