The Tamaqua Area Drama Club will take audiences on a trip to the past when it presents “Bright Star” today, Friday and Saturday at the district auditorium.

Director Adriane Drum said the musical is based on a true event, and switches between the 1920s and 1940s.

“I fell in love with the music and the story, and I felt it was a great fit for our current cast. I also like how unique the show is, both in plot and the fact that it has a bluegrass score,” Drum said of the musical written and composed by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell.

The story follows Alice Murphy and alternates between two different times in her life, 1923, when she is a teenager in a rural area of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and 1945, when she is a successful literary editor in Asheville, North Carolina. The story is a drama, as it traces the love, relationships, traumas, betrayals and tragedies of Alice’s youth and shows the way in which she must ultimately confront her past in order to get the answers she needs to move forward, Drum explained.

Both the set and the costumes transport the audience to the past.

“For this show, many of the 1940s dresses were ordered from a vintage reproduction website from London and another vintage website,” Drum said.

Locating the 1920s day dresses was much more difficult, and Drum had to scour Etsy for original, one-of-a-kind vintage dresses, which took quite a bit of time to get right.

“Luckily, for the male costumes, most of them could be pieced together from our previous productions, and, in particular, from ‘Newsies,’ which were costumes we were never able to use due to the COVID cancellation,” she explained.

Drum noted that the drama club puts on two productions each school year. The first is in November, and the second in March. Students began working on “Bright Star” in December.

“They practice six days a week for several hours a day, so they put in a tremendous amount of time and effort to make these shows possible,” she said. “I am so proud of all of them for their commitment and dedication and for the quality of their work.”

While she cautioned that the performance isn’t suitable for young students because of some mature content, she promised that “people will not be disappointed if they decide to come see this beautiful show.”

There is a total cast and crew of approximately 75 students in sixth to 12th grades.

Junior Anna McCabe leads as Alice Murphy along with freshman Denny Krell as Jimmy Ray Dobbs, senior Liam Borden as Billy Cane, senior Keri Oswald as Margo Crawford, and sophomore Stephen Behun as Mayor Josiah Dobbs. Other cast members include junior Brooke Williams as Lucy Grant, senior Ayrton Auman as Daryl Ames, junior Jonathan Ulicny as Daddy Murphy, senior Alexxa Kowalski as Mama Murphy, sophomore Timmy Berg as Daddy Cane, and sophomore Hunter Ruch as Stanford Adams.

Performances will be held today at 6 p.m., and Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. both days. Tickets can be purchased at the door an hour before each show and are $10 for adults and $8 for students.

“Bright Star” is Drum’s 20th production as a director.

“What is really special to me is that all 19 of my previous shows are represented on the stage in some form, which makes me smile when I look at the set and replay all those wonderful memories,” she said.