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Mary Popps-In PPA Production By Michael Pa-shtrom-i - Staff Pasta Lover

Illustration courtesy of East Bay Dance Company

Performing arts teacher Katie Linza was having a nice, normal afternoon when she spotted the silhouette of famed British nanny Mary Poppins in the sky. This was particularly coincidental as Linza and the rest of Pinewood’s performing arts department was in rehearsals for “Mary Poppins: The Musical.”

“She landed right in front of me and said ‘I want to play myself in your silly musical,’” Linza said. “ I said no, and she responded, ‘Don’t slouch. You’re a director, not a sloth.’”

According to witness reports, Poppins then proceeded to enter the theater and demand to speak to the actress playing her character in the show. Senior Isabelle Eivers, who was cast as Mary Poppins in the musical, happened to be in the theater at the time.

“She said I couldn’t possibly play her because I’m moderately decent and rather mediocre,” Eivers said. “I felt disheartened as you can imagine, but I couldn’t compete with her.”

Following this encounter, Poppins reportedly integrated quickly into the cast of the musical, while bonding with the actors playing her children.

“Isabelle was good and all, but I think Mary Poppins is so much better,” freshman Mia Gustavson, who plays Jane, said. “Yesterday, after we finished doing choreography for ‘Spoonful of Sugar,’ Mary Poppins took the cast into one of the painted backdrops for our cast trip. I loved it so much.”

The cast and crew of “Mary Poppins: The Musical” is not entirely in favor of Poppins’ behavior.

“I work hard to choreograph all the numbers for the show ahead of time, which is what makes it so frustrating when Mary Poppins comes in, calls my choreography fairly average, creates her own on the spot, and everyone prefers hers,” choreographer Carrie McRobbie said.

In addition to disobeying directions and taking the cast on magical adventures, Poppins reportedly places a lot of pressure on the cast.

“I often feel very stressed out when trying to make the show practically perfect, but I have to admit that Mary Poppins helps a lot with that,” senior Prithi Srinivasan, who is a stage manager for the show, said.

Poppins herself also had opinions about her fellow cast members, which she expressed in an exclusive interview with the Perennial.

“It’s really a shame that that girl who played me was only relatively acceptable, but I never preoccupy myself with such matters,” Poppins said. “As for the rest of the cast, I think they are quite satisfactory. With the exception of that wretched boy who plays Admiral Boom. Perhaps I should play his part instead.”

Admiral Boom, played by Michael Pa-shtrom-mi, declined to comment on the matter.