ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — They say an army moves on its stomach, and so does the cast and crew of a high school musical production.

Every afternoon this week, the parents of students involved in Edgewood Senior High School’s production of “Guys and Dolls” are providing a meal for all 80 persons working on the musical. Students eat on a long row of tables set up in the hall near the stage. Fare includes sloppy joes, pizza and rigatoni. Even the special dietary needs of the 10 vegetarians on the project are accommodated.

Directors Bill and Mary Ann Kline say the meal is a tradition during “tech week,” when the dress rehearsals run late into the night. Students are nourished physically by breaking bread before going to work, and their relationships as cast members are reinforced, as well.

“It’s just how we do it,” says Mary Ann. “We always find that the more time a cast spends together, that camaraderie spills over to the characters on stage.”

The public can test the veracity of that theory when the curtain rises 7 p.m. Friday and again 2 and 7 p.m. on Saturday. Student admission is $5; adult is $7. In keeping with the New York setting of the musical, pizza and cheesecake will be available to purchase during the intermission.

“Guys and Dolls” features music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and is based on two short stories by Damon Runyon. It ran for 1,200 performances on Broadway and won the Tony Award for best musical. The film version was made in 1955.

Mary Ann said they selected “Guys and Dolls” because there was a great deal of interest from male students this year. “Guys and Dolls” has a predominantly male cast.

“We knew we had the bodies and voices to do it,” Mary Ann said.

The lead of Sky Masterson goes to junior Zach Adkins, who came into the part unfamiliar with the play. A veteran of both Edgewood and Ashtabula Arts Center productions, Adkins researched the musical by talking to those who had worked on the arts center’s production, then added his own take on the character.

“I definitely put a lot of myself into the character,” Adkins says. “It’s also a realization of where this guy is coming from and where he is at in his life.”

There are 48 students, freshmen through seniors in the cast. Another 15 students are performing behind the scenes, in the pit band, which is directed by Nila Maurer. Music director for the production is Nora Giangola.

Mary Ann says the artists deserve special kudos.

“We’ve used many art students who have done a massive amount of painting for this show,” Mary Ann says. “We’ve got three drops this year, and we usually have only one.”

She says mothers and fathers of students have pitched in with whatever needed to be done, from preparing meals to building sets and stitching up costumes.

“We have a volunteer army of mothers, grandmothers and dads who have come in to do anything and everything we needed them to do. All of them are volunteering their time,” she says.

Frances Norman, whose granddaughter, Brittany Norman, is a Hot Box Dancer, was sewing yellow “Save a Soul Mission” emblems on retired Edgewood Chorus blazers as practice got under way Monday evening. Mary found the blazers in a closet and revived them for the production.

She says finding costumes for “Guys and Dolls,” set in the 1940s, was particularly challenging. She borrowed some costumes from the Ashtabula Arts Center and scoured every Goodwill store in the tri-county area. But the real costume gold mine was right under Mary Ann’s family tree — her 90-year-old mother’s closet.

Kline says her mother has a habit of saving all her clothing, even that going back to the 1940s and ’50s.

“When she comes to the show Friday night, she’s going to look up there and it will be like a review of her life,” Mary Ann says. “It’s going to be a parade of Grandma Lizzie’s closet.”