The Pascack Valley Theatre Program will be holding its first in-person musical in two years. They are performing “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”

“This is my sixteenth year at Valley, and I’m reflecting on it more this year because we haven’t had a live [musical] to share with people in three years. [We are] not only getting to share the show again but getting to make art [again],” Co-Director Thomas Lupfer said

The musical’s first showing will take place on Thursday, March 17, and the following on Friday and Saturday. The showings will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday.

“We’ve dealt with several COVID-related absences between the Omicron [variant] and COVID cases,” Lupfer said. “And so just juggling schedules has been particularly challenging because of the pandemic.”

The cast has been working on the musical since auditions during the first week of December.

“[The musical] has six typically named characters and then there are six ensemble members,” cast member Lauren Kalfus said. “[The ensemble members] are in a bunch of the dance numbers and a big chunk of the show. So, we have 12 cast members in total, but [“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”] is typically a six-person show.”

Lupfer says that this musical is a small show and a challenge keeping the show as exciting as it usually would be.

“When we did Once Upon a Mattress in 2019, there were 54 kids in the cast, just now there’s 12 in this cast,” Lupfer said. “So that’s one of the biggest changes, it’s just everything’s a little smaller.”

Stage Crew Chief and Stage Manager Regan Witt finds this to be a benefit in some ways and says the smaller cast brings the whole program closer together. Witt says that the most challenging part of her job is the exhaustion from the physical demands some tasks take.

“I remember when I realized that [the cast] all kind of just clicked together. We all got along really well and we’re all friends,” cast member Abigail Lange said.

The musical will run for two hours including the break for intermission.