The High School Musical

Tonight was the first full run through for our school's musical production of Footloose. Normally the first run through leaves me with a migraine. Tonight was different

Many musicians get their first taste of stardom in a school musical or school play. I love giving my students this opportunity, and every year I look forward to the beginning of our musical rehearsals, that is until a few weeks before opening night when nothing is ready and the kids still don't know their lines.

Tonight marks the two week deadline before our school musical opens. I honestly have to say I was impressed with the work the kids did so far. I heard singing tonight unlike any I have heard in a school musical for a long time (at least at the high school level). If this is an indication of things to come I will be very pleased when we open in two weeks.

Being in a school musical or play is so much more than just singing or performing in front of an audience. The fun and camaraderie that comes from the rehearsals and performances is what the students will always remember. Four years after the fact my students still talk about the night I accidentally hit a sound effects button during the final scene of "Annie Get Your Gun!" When the gunshot sound went off our ever comical Buffalo Bill thought for a moment, grabbed at his chest and did one of the funniest slapstick death routines ever seen on our stage leaving the audience and the cast in stitches. To this day all other school musicals are judged by that one event.

In a perfect world everyone would get to have this kind of experience performing in a school or community musical. Until that perfect world comes around please try to get out and see your local school play or musical this spring. It isn't Broadway, but to the actors on stage it is just a good.