\u201cBig Fish,\u201d this year\u2019s Homecoming musical, illustrates the relationship between a father and his son through present-day events and flashbacks. Within the cast, the show also includes a real-life father-son team: Luke and Joel Hoggard.<\/p>\n
Luke, a second-grader at Harding Academy, plays \u201cYoung Will Bloom,\u201d the past-day version of the same character played by senior Daniel Norwood. Joel, a local real estate agent, appears as several characters throughout the musical, including a scout master and a circus performer.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuke was the best fit for the role because of his talent and his look and size,\u201d Cindee Stockstill, the musical\u2019s producer, said. \u201cWe decided to add Joel into the show in some scenes to highlight good father-son relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Stockstill, \u201cBig Fish\u201d brings to life the \u201cfish tales\u201d Will Bloom heard all his life from his father, Edward Bloom, played by sophomore Max Ross. Unlike the Hoggards, the Blooms have a strained relationship, and have had one for a long time. While their relationship is not reflected in that of their characters, the Hoggards said they have seen a few parallels.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuke\u2019s character plays with a constant eye roll toward his dad,\u201d Joel said. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure Luke didn\u2019t need much motivation to identify with his character there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither Luke nor Joel are new to Harding performances. \u201cBig Fish\u201d audience members may recognize Luke from his role as \u201cLittle Jake\u201d in last year\u2019s Homecoming musical, \u201cAnnie Get Your Gun,\u201d or from his participation in several Spring Sing shows. Joel, along with his daughter (and Luke\u2019s sister) Isabel, was in \u201cShrek the Musical\u201d in 2014. This year, however, is the first time Joel and Luke have shared the stage. The Hoggards said they have enjoyed preparing for the musical together, though the process has not been without challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, it took some self-control to not try and correct him up on stage,\u201d Joel said. \u201cCindee Stockstill was quick to tell me that she and [\u2018Big Fish\u2019 director] Ben Jones were in charge of his acting, and that my job was to be a cheerleader and encourager.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several times a week throughout the semester, the Hoggards joined the rest of the \u201cBig Fish\u201d cast for rehearsals. Though the schedules of a real estate agent and second-grader differ greatly from those of college students, Joel said the cast and crew were understanding of their time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe director and the producer have done a great job of really only having us there when they need us, because Luke is so young,\u201d Joel said.<\/p>\n
Stockstill said that while Luke is young, his talent and supportive family create the perfect combination for a young cast member.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoel and Luke are an excellent example of how a father-son relationship is supposed to work,\u201d Stockstill said. \u201cIt has been fun watching them interact both on stage and off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Real-life father and son duo of “Big Fish” takes the stage \u201cBig Fish,\u201d this year\u2019s Homecoming musical, illustrates the relationship between a father and his son through present-day events and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15099,"featured_media":11727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[387,459,385,458,457],"class_list":["post-11726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-big-fish","tag-cindee-stockstill","tag-homecoming","tag-joel-hoggard","tag-luke-hoggard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15099"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11732,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11726\/revisions\/11732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}