The curtain will rise at the Capitol theatre at 7pm tonight and is a whole-school affair, with students in the orchestra, make-up, set design, backstage and, of course, in the limelight. 

The youngest star on the stage will be 10-year-old Ethan Woods in the role of Little Jake. 

“It has been a lot of hard work but I definitely think it’s going to be worth it,” Ethan said. 

Nicole Quigley, in the lead role of Annie Oakley, said she was looking forward to bringing the “reckless” character to life in her last Carinya performance. 

Nicole said the musical was a tale of Annie’s development from an illiterate, tomboyish sharpshooter to the darling of the show business world. 

She said there was added pressure in presenting a real historical figure. 

“But she’s also such a light-hearted character, so she’s easy to have fun with,” Nicole said. 

Director and math teacher Ruth Adusu said she had interpreted the script to be cleaner for the stage and wipe out harmful misconceptions about Native American culture.

She said she knows a Native American boy who is “like a surrogate son” to her, so it hit home how important it was to stamp out racist taunts from the original script. 

“I was horrified. There were still a lot of things – like the term “redskins” – that were very offensive,” Ms Adusu said. 

She said she had also brought the history of the real-life Annie Oakley into the mix as a learning experience for the students. 

Principal Katrina Telfer said the event had been planned since last year and was a good community exercise that saw teachers, high school students and primary students mingle. 

Annie Get Your Gun opens tonight at the Capitol Theatre at 7pm, with shows on Friday and Saturday nights, as well as a Saturday matinee.