Giddy up for Oklahoma!: Q & A with Director Miss Gabi Cranga

 by Isabella Kolb ‘28


Photo Courtesy of Brienna Richelle Photography

High school theater comes with dedication, hard work, and responsibility, but community, talent, and passion for theater makes it all worthwhile. The 2025 Spring Musical, Oklahoma! concluded with its final performance on March 30th. A musical about trust, love, courage, and redemption, it has its fair share of catchy tunes like “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” and “Kansas City”.

Sitting down with our very own theater director, Gabi Cranga, she shed some insight on the process of assembling the play, challenges, highlights, and benefits. 


Q: Why do you think theater is so important to the Delone community?


A: “By participating in theater, you’re able to learn how to work together, hold yourself and others accountable, and see what it takes to put a show together. Theater analyzes the whole person in that way.”


Q: What was the biggest challenge putting the musical together?


A: “It was very large scale, from music to dance numbers, and acting. In the end, it was a meeting of all the different departments coming together.”


Q: What’s the overall lesson that can be taken away from the story?


A:  “To achieve happiness and to feel good, hard work is very important. Even though it may be hard, you have to push through and stay tough. To quote Aunt Eller, a character from Oklahoma, ‘There’s only one way. You gotta be hearty, you got to be. You can’t deserve the sweet and tender in life less’n you’re tough.’” 


Q: Why choose Oklahoma! for the Spring musical?


A: “Oklahoma! is full of dynamic, relatable characters and it’s such a classic. Many feel nostalgic from hearing all those songs, and it’s an overall fun musical. “ 


Q: What is the most rewarding part of theater, specifically the musical?


A: “As a director, seeing how much fun the students have with it is definitely a joy to see. Also how they begin to take ownership of their acting. When something may go wrong, they adapt and recover. That’s really the beauty of live theater, it’s never the same show, every night is a little different.”


Q: Any final thoughts or comments surrounding the Spring musical?


A: “It was a joy to be a part of, and it was a very large-scale show to put together. I’m very proud of the cast and crew, these students worked very hard to put this musical  together” 


Thank you to our theater director, Gabi Cranga, for her time, as well as the cast and crew who made this production possible! 



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