She put on her very own musical during her senior year at West Ranch High School. It was West Ranch’s last performance in 2020 before the school shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, as a senior at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, Castaic native McKenzie Arnold, 23, got the chance to put on her musical again, this time at the high school where she’s been student teaching. Her goal is to teach high school theater after graduation this spring. She credits her experience at West Ranch for all she’s been able to do and all she wants to do.
“That experience (in high school) was actually why I fell in love with theater education in the first place,” Arnold said during a telephone interview from Utah. “The opportunity I had, to have a class period and direct and produce my musical — I just loved the art and practice of being a theater educator. So, it was a pivotal moment in my life.”
Her musical, called “Illusive Impressions,” is a dark comedy that takes place in what Arnold called “ye olden days,” when a royal wedding meant to secure peace between two kingdoms instead ignites a twisted battle of love, betrayal and rebellion, in which servants challenge the powerful and no one escapes the strings of manipulation.
It’s a two-act play, Arnold said, that begins as a comedy, then closes in quite a dark way, going from a stage of 25 living characters to only two of them by the time the curtain drops.
“I started writing ‘Illusive Impressions’ when I was a sophomore in high school, and I just continually worked on it through my junior year of high school,” she said. “Then I reached out to the theater teacher there, and I was like, ‘Hey, I have this musical. It’s mostly done. Would you be willing to perform it?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, for sure.’ He let me into the theater class my junior year, I kept working on my show, and then my senior year is when we got to perform it. And he just gave me a class period.”
Arnold came to creative writing early on in life, according to her mom, Kashia Arnold.
When she was in high school, and the theater department gave her the chance to put on her show, her mom said she got the chance to put her talents on display for all to see, and it really paid off.
“To not only write a musical and then direct it and help with the production side of it — she did all that with a lot of people,” her mom said. “Just not quite sure how this would all go. It was a smashing success. Fast forward, where she’s graduating this year, and she’s going to, once again, have her special musical performed. It’s just a testament to who she is. She has a wealth of talents that center around not just storytelling but connecting people to those stories in a way that brings out that spark of joy in others.”
Arnold’s aunt, Brie Hintze, was thrilled to learn that Arnold would be bringing her musical back. When she saw it at West Ranch, she was blown away.
Hintz, who lives in Oklahoma City, said she thought about flying out to Utah to see the play on stage again.
“But then the (plane) tickets were $900,” she said. “I would’ve been willing to do a lot, but I was like, ‘That’s a very high price.’”
This last fall, Arnold was directing another show at BYU as part of her studies, and she’d been talking about her musical with her cast. She said they actually pestered her to do the show again.
Arnold called the act of doing the musical again a “beautiful moment,” in which her college senior self was somewhat mirroring her high school senior self. However, the new version of “Illusive Impressions” has added scenes and altered scenes — it’s a show that, she said, grew up with her.
The performance of “Illusive Impressions” in Utah was a one-night event in April. Arnold was very happy and grateful to see it on its feet a second time, adding that she’d love to see it performed again, albeit the next time with another director attached to see how it could be interpreted.
Arnold also said she’d like to record it as an album. The music, which was written by fellow West Ranch student Connor Davis, is, in her opinion, brilliant.
Currently, however, Arnold is looking to get her career in education started. She’s already been applying for theater teacher jobs.
Her aunt is especially excited for her niece’s journey. She herself grew up in the theater. In fact, Hintze said theater was one of the things she and her niece bonded over, adding that what Arnold wants to do with theater is important work.
“I can attest to the wonderful influence that those educators were in my own life, providing a space for you to explore and find opportunities for yourself, even if they’re made up, even if it’s in a story,” Hintz said. “I think the confidence that it builds in students lasts through your whole life. What a beautiful opportunity for her (Arnold) to share her infectious talent and joy for all things with the arts.”
Arnold said there was nothing more she wanted to do. While she thought early on that she’d become an English teacher, the experience of doing “Illusive Impressions” at West Ranch solidified her desire to teach theater. She loves the idea of encouraging others to love theater as she does.
“I want to encourage the love of the fine arts,” she said. “To help students discover themselves and find their identity through art. That’s what I did, especially with this show. A lot of it is me figuring out how to grow up and how life works, and I love being able to provide that opportunity for other students.”
