Hallie Garrison, 17, Taylor Thurman, 16, Rachel Ironmonger, 15, Jason Palumbo, 17 and Anna Booth, 15 on stage at South River High School. The teens are preparing for their upcoming Musical Revue opening on Friday and running again on Saturday night. Photo by Mitchelle Stephenson for The Capital Add finding such entertainment locally, and it is a tall order. But both south county high schools, Southern High in Harwood and South River High in Edgewater, have come to the rescue with productions timed for the holiday Saturday.
South River High students will be putting on their second annual student-directed musical revue. On both Friday and Saturday, starting at 7:30 p.m., 35 students will present 20 songs from the stage and screen. Highlights include arrangements from "Mamma Mia!," "The Music Man," "South Pacific," "Annie Get Your Gun," "Hair," and "Gypsy."
Seniors Will Paxon and Hallie Garrison have been working for weeks to put the program together. Earlier this year they held auditions, and for weeks they have been holding rehearsals to get everything ready for opening night.
"We had about 70 people audition," Hallie said, adding that they weren't quite sure what they were going to put on. After the theater department passed on a spring musical, they decided to do a musical revue.
"After we heard the talent, we knew we wanted to do something musical," she said, noting that they wanted to feature as many students musical talents as possible in the hour-and-a-half production, so they decided on a line-up of the group's favorite songs from their favorite musicals.
The singers and dancers are being backed up by the school's jazz band in a collaborative effort.
The show is open to the public, free, and taking place in the South River High School auditorium, 214 Central Ave. East. Tickets are not required. For more information, call the school at 410-956-5600.
Down the road a bit, Southern High School's music booster club has put together a night of improv comedy as a fundraiser. The show will take place at St. James Church and includes a spaghetti dinner of spaghetti, drink, salad and dessert.
The boosters are raising money for their upcoming trip to Toronto, (Canada), where they will perform in competition at a judged music festival. The trip costs $535 per person, but they are trying to offset as much of the cost as possible for the roughly 25 chaperones and 75 students.
For the students, the trip will be an opportunity to challenge their musical talents before a body of judges at the collegiate and professional level. Each performance will be critiqued with an opportunity to work in workshops to improve and enhance their act.
The booster group has been hosting a different fundraiser each month. They've held bingo nights at the Elks club, car washes, bake sales and pizza dough fundraisers. Katey Bailey, president of the music booster club said, "we're trying the improv night as something new."
They're working with students from Southern Middle's improv club to provide the entertainment. Both students from the middle and high school clubs will be paired up into two teams. Each team will perform skits, like on the TV show, "Whose Line is it Anyway?" The audience will participate by rating the comedy performances.
"It should be a fun with lots of comedy," Bailey said.
The improv comedy night with spaghetti dinner costs $10, and starts at 5 p.m. at St. James Church - the corner of Routes 2 and 258 in Lothian.
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Mitchelle Stephenson is a freelance writer living in Edgewater.
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