6/7/07

Students unite in musical dinner theater presentation: A review
By Philip Gibbons

Submitted Photo

Cast members of Scott’s Branch High School’s performace of “A High School Musical” take their final bow in what was a splendid performance.

Anybody who has ever experienced high school knows that the environment is a divided affair. Cliques have and will continue to exist. The science enthusiasts, jocks, preps, geeks, freaks and tough guys all stay together and rarely associate outside of their own groups. It’s not as big a deal as television and movies portray it, but I was in high school long enough to know that it’s the truth.

On Thursday, May 31, Scott’s Branch High School put on a dinner theatre production entitled “A High School Musical,” based on the Disney television movie of the same name. The show included a meal provided by the cafeteria staff, and was preceded by a several musical performances.

“Our goal here is to increase student involvement in the fine arts, so they can find their inner spirit,” said Shelia Barringer, the presentation’s director and the choral music teacher at Scott’s Branch High School. “Sometimes they think it’s all about academics, and the fine arts program – music, art, drama, dance – can enhance what they’re learning in their other classes. That’s the goal, to help them build their self-esteem, find something else that they can do, and just integrate it into what they’re learning in their other classrooms.”

The story can be thought of as a lighthearted cross between “Romeo and Juliet” and The Breakfast Club. It concerns two students, Troy Bolton (Darryle Witherspoon) and Gabriella (Darrreshia Mivens) who have a chance encounter at a karaoke party during winter break. When they discover that they’re going to the same school together when the next semester starts, it seems they’re destined to be together.

But high school is a world of warring cliques, and the rules dictate that a romantic relationship between these two is forbidden. And the sides they are on couldn’t be any more different. Troy is a star athlete, Gabriella an academic champion. When they decide to audition for the school musical, they earn a callback, sparking the ire of Sharpay (Brittany Smith), the school drama star. She conspires with the basketball team (which includes Troy’s best friend Chad) to split them up out of spite, but find that the chaos it causes wasn’t worth the trouble. Everybody forgives each other and the show ends in a big song and dance number.

What makes this story a particularly interesting choice is that students from all areas of Scott’s Branch were involved in it, which is parallel to its spirit of unity and togetherness. As Barringer explained, there were no auditions.

“It started with the students in my chorus class,” she said. “We made some announcements about wanting students to participate.”

“We have our cheerleaders, and some of our basketball players. It’s basically covering all aspects of the school, and that’s the basis of the musical.”

“Everyone in this school basically helped. I have acknowledgements on the back of the program, all the way down from Mr. [Tarleton] Blackwell, the art teacher— and Mr. [Christopher] Evans, our agricultural teacher. Ms. [Glenda] Coard helped with marketing.”

The program ran from 6:30 to around 8:30 p.m., with the actual show itself running a length of about half an hour. The TV movie’s running time was 93 minutes, according to the Internet Movie Database. Obviously, that’s a lot of material to cover in a short amount of time, so the dinner theatre version was condensed down to the most crucial moments. Between each scene, the curtain fell and a narrator (Katrina Lynch) announced events that occurred offstage. The technique was effective in pushing the plot forward.

Rehearsals for the musical were relentless, and went on right until show time. When I held my interview with Barringer, I milled through a huge crowd of performers practicing lines, singing and dancing. I have never seen so much effort being put into a performance, but then again, I’ve never been backstage before a play.

“We had to put in a lot of work,” said Barringer, “We rehearsed every day in class, where we have 90-minute blocks. We started out a week before spring break. We had some pullouts, and after-school rehearsals for about two weeks.”

Scott’s Branch High is bursting with musical talent. Before the play started, there was a piano recital, where several students played such songs as “The Can Can,” “Why I am Blue” and “He’s Got the Whole World.” What was amazing about this was that a lot of these students were ninth graders. During the show itself, the singing voices were incredible. It’s hard to believe that no auditions were held.

I can definitely say that all the work involved in “A High School Musical” was worth the effort. All the planning, rehearsing, budgeting and setup added to a presentation of considerable proportions. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and have nothing but good expectations for the future of these students.