High school musical? Forget Disney, Chesapeake has the goods. Classic entertainment and timeless music will be created this week by talented high schoolers and their teachers across various stages this week.

• Grassfield will debut its first musical, featuring the thugs, mugs, hoods, slickers and molls of “Guys and Dolls” Thursday through Saturday.

• On Thursday, Oscar Smith High will take patrons to the “Harlem Renaissance” when it showcases student art, offers dramatic poetry readings of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, and performs the rich swing and blues of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.

• Great Bridge High will visit “The Wizard of Oz” Thursday through Saturday.

• Hickory High will make the hills come alive with the “Sound of Music” Thursday through Saturday.

 

All-student effort brings Grizzly "Guys and Dolls" together

A whole lot of guys and dolls are behind Grassfield High School's inaugural musical.

"Guys and Dolls," the all singing and dancing spectacle set in the hurly-burly of New York City's 42nd Street/Times Square during the early 1950s, premieres Thursday for a three-day run at Chesapeake's newest high school.

The production is a team effort headed by orchestra director Steve "Mr. V" Vutsinas, theater director Russ Staggs, choral director Joey Parrish, band director Zach Rooksby and English teacher Kymberly Rau. The five faculty members will lead, supervise and direct about 100 students in the cast, crew and orchestra.

"A collaborative musical was all on our minds at the outset," Staggs explained. "We wanted to start off Grassfield's musical program in a collaborative fashion."

Vutsinas said that's the watchword for any type of Grizzly project in or out of the classroom, thanks to principal Carolyn Bernard.

"Our whole school is based on the concept of collaboration, and this project will reflect that," Vutsinas added. "There's more collaboration here than any other I've worked on. It's one of the coolest things I've ever experienced."

In addition to all of Grassfield's fine arts departments coming together, the Grizzly business department is handling the advertising, programs, tickets and a cast showcase bulletin.

"The administrative staff has been very supportive as well. They've stepped in financially," Parrish added. "We've had assistant principals show up to help with sets and to hang mics. Everybody's been pitching in."

The student cast also has come together in the spirit of cooperation. Vutsinas said many have "never, ever" set foot on stage until this production.

"Matthew (Grauberger, a sophomore who plays Nicely-Nicely Johnson) and Margaret (Nelson, a junior who portrays Sister Sarah Brown) have never done this before, but kids like these still came out," he added. "But Katie (Brunberg, a junior cast as Miss Adelaide) is a veteran, and she's the glue that's held these other students together."

Brunberg said various school cliques that hardly socialized before are coming together. "I'm talking to people I've never talked to before," she said.

Nelson agreed, saying she's making new friends.

"This (production) incorporates so many of our skills, so many of our talents, and we're all helping each other achieve that success," Grauberger added.

Three student service clubs - the National Honor Society, DECA and the Anchor Club - will serve as ushers. The varsity and junior varsity softball parents and their families will sell concessions, and on each evening a different parents association - band, orchestra and choral - will sell tickets.

Even choosing the musical was a collaborative effort, Staggs said. He explained that Parrish was the catalyst for "Guys and Dolls."

"We wanted something that was old-school, a classic musical, a show with a lot of energy that would challenge the students here at Grassfield," Parrish added. "We all chose 'Guys and Dolls.' That fit us best this year."

Auditions were held in January, and intense rehearsals have been ongoing for five weeks.

The musical debuted on Broadway in 1950 and was made into an acclaimed 1955 film starring Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons and Stubby Kaye. The musical was based on two short stories - "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Pick a Winner" - by Damon Runyon.

Featuring colorful "Noo Yawk" street characters and underworld figures, the story includes gangsters, molls, pickpockets, mugs, thugs, gamblers, slickers and Salvation Army "troops" within a world of floating crap games, scams and sleazy nightclubs.

Nelson said the show's music runs the gamut of genres.

"It's very jazzy, soulful and choral-esque. There's a wide variety there," said Nelson, whose favorite song is "If I Were a Bell." "The music is fun."

Brunberg, who dyed her hair blond for her role, said the story, the music, the dance numbers and songs are "completely over-the-top."

Staggs said that "over-the-top" spirit has pervaded Grizzly country.

"There's a definite buzz in the air," he said. "It's in the school, the halls, the classroom and throughout our community. It's been an awesome experience for all of us, and it will be for the audience."

 

Entire Oscar Smith arts department takes trip to Harlem Renaissance

Oscar Smith High School's Fine Arts Department will present its annual "Oscar Smith High School Evening With the Arts" at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the school cafeteria and theater.

This year's theme is "The Harlem Renaissance," based on the period from about 1919 to the early 1930s in New York's Harlem section. The era produced scores of now iconic black intellectuals, poets, authors, artists, playwrights, musicians and singers such as W.E.B. DuBois, James Weldon Johnson, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Fats Waller, Richard Wright, Wallace Thurman, Countee Cullen, Romare Bearden and Langston Hughes.

Fine Arts Department director Lydia Toliver said Oscar Smith selects an arts theme each year to reflect cultural richness and diversity and to "bring to the community the talent that we have here in our school building."

Themes have included Motown, New Orleans, Women in the Arts and the country's Latin/Hispanic heritage.

"We try to cover all genres, creative periods and topics that can cover all the arts," said James A. Wilson Jr., Smith's band director, who will lead his student musicians through swing and big band tunes of the era penned by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.

Toliver will direct the school chorus through a medley of "Take the A Train," "Satin Doll," "Mood Indigo" and "Don't Get Around Much Anymore."

The band and choral concert will be held at the school's theater after the 6:30 p.m. dinner.

Artists will display their creations at a special Student Art Gallery, and the theater department will render dramatic poetry readings of verse by Cullen and Hughes and perform a scene from Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin In the Sun."

Toliver said the arts department will decorate the school cafeteria to resemble the Cotton Club, where patrons will dine on lemon pepper chicken or roast beef with all the trimmings catered by Central Meats' "Almost Catered." Diners will be serenaded by the Smith String Orchestra, and solo vocalists will perform classic jazz/blues/pop songs of the period.

"It will be an exciting, and creative, evening reflecting a creative period in our history," Toliver said. "And it will showcase the immense talent we have at Oscar Smith."

 

Great Bridge High travels to "Oz," but not down the standard road

When the audience files into the Great Bridge High auditorium Thursday and Friday, some individuals may be heard to exclaim, "gee, honey, I don't think we're in Chesapeake anymore."

The school's Fine Arts Department will present L. Frank Baum's immortal children's classic, "The Wizard of Oz."

Drama director John Carter said the production will be based on the classic 1939 film, and then it won't.

For example, it's billed as a musical, but it won't have end-to-end songs.

And a group of 25 Munchkins will be featured, but they'll all look as if they could join a pretty good basketball team.

"We are using the stock characters from the film and the songs, but, rather, we're basing it on a stage musical that was adapted by Frank Gabrielson," said Carter. "The musical adhered more closely to Baum's book than the film, and we're going with that."

He explained that this stage version, based on the 1939 classic film, will work better for his student cast and crew.

"It's easier to play and more easily produced," he said.

Carter said although the story is well-known for such songs as "Over the Rainbow," "We're Off to See the Wizard (Follow the Yellow Brick Road)," "Munchkinland (Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead)," "The Merry Old Land of Oz" and "If I Only Had a Brain (a Heart) (the Nerve)," "there's not that much music in it."

When not singing, Carter will direct his students through the story's plot, and sophomore Mandy Giampaolo (who will also portray the Wicked Witch of the West) will lead the cast through her original choreography.

And don't expect to see diminutive Munchkins.

"Nothing in the book really said the Munchkins were that small. That was part of the MGM movie," Carter explained. "So, we're going with our own students, normal sized people. But they'll be wearing the Munchkin colors and acting silly like Munchkins. Basically, we'll have the tallest Munchkins ever."

Although Carter will direct his students through the non-singing parts, the entire project is a team effort among four of Great Bridge's fine arts teachers.

Also leading the production will be school orchestra director John Husser, who will conduct the pit band; marching band director/Fine Arts Department head Rob Carroll, who will act as music director; and choral director James Sanders, the cast's vocal coach.

"There's not really one person running everything. It's mostly the four of us," Carroll explained.

Ideas for a collaborative musical were bounced around the foursome. Many titles were thrown in. Carter said a student finally offered the suggestion to do "Oz."

"Everybody loves 'The Wizard of Oz.' It's a crowd pleaser and fun to do and watch," he said. "Our kids were excited to do it. It's a part of everyone's childhood."

Although the Wicked Witch of the West won't fly across the stage on her broomstick, the audience can still expect a few special effect surprises.

"Come to the show and find out what they are," he teased. "The audience should expect to relive their childhood memories, and just have a good time."

 

Strong leadership teaches Hawks many lessons with "Sound of Music"

The Hawk "hills will be alive with the sound of music" on Thursday through Saturday evenings.

Hickory High School Theatre, under the direction of drama teacher Marla Wood, will present its splashy production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music." It's the first time the school has staged the story, set in pre-war Austria, about Maria, the Baron and the von Trapp family.

Previous Hawk musicals have included "The King & I," "Once Upon a Mattress," "Annie," "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and its tribute to the Fab Four - "Sergeant Peter Best's Lonely Hearts Club Band Syndrome."

Wood said she chose this particular musical because of its pervasive pop culture status. She also has the cast and numbers to bring it off.

"It offers lead opportunities for many of my students," she said. "I have a lot of seniors this year, and I always like to cast as many as possible. All of my students, of course, have heard of this one. When they learned we were doing this, they were very excited."

Connie Reed, president of the Hickory Parents' Association of Theatre (HPAT) and whose sophomore daughter Tracy is in the cast, said her child instantly recognized the musical's well-known songs.

"All of her friends and peers know it, too," she said.

The musical opened on Broadway in 1959 and became a blockbuster production. The 1965 film, which stamped the musical into Western pop culture's psyche, hauled in many Academy Awards and made a universal star out of Julie Andrews. Its hit songs include "Do-Re-Mi," "Climb Every Mountain," "The Farewell Song" and "My Favorite Things."

Wood - who will be aided by her co-director and husband, David "Woodie" Wood - said this production is one of the smallest Hickory has staged.

"Usually, we have from 80 to 100 students in a cast," Wood said. "This one will have around 60."

New to this year's production will be a slick, modern way to obtain tickets.

"This will be the first time we're using online ticket purchases," Reed said. "It will be just like TicketMaster, the way Broadway does it."

Also, those who purchase $20 VIP seating within the first two rows will be immersed in Maria von Trapp's world.

Wood said during intermission, VIP ticket holders will be invited onstage where they will be served hors d'ouevres and cider by "maids and servants" from the von Trapp household.

"They will be students in costume doing audience interaction," Wood said. "They will serve the refreshments, and they will be in character at all times. They will deliver total dramatic improvisation."

Wood said the project also helps her students learn about the history of pre-World War II Austria, Austrian customs and culture and other educational disciplines including geometry and algebra to design and build sets, and chemistry and physics for the special effects, sound and lighting.

"This is so multi-faceted," she said. "All helps teach my students self-confidence, cooperation and teamwork."

Students affectionately refer to their director as "Mama Wood."

"She truly is," Reed said. "She teaches them life skills. She's strict, she expects the best out of them and she gets it. Her cast is remarkable because they respond to Marla's leadership."

This weekend's performances will feature extensive choreography at the hands of Kymberly Rau, who has also been working on dances for Grassfield's production of "Guys and Dolls." The music will be provided by a 25-member orchestra of students and teachers, directed by Todd Parrish.

Cast, crew and musicians are ready for Thursday's opening.

"It always come together well," Reed said. "There's always a scary night and once that's over, it all goes well."

 

Eric Feber, 222-5203, eric.feber@pilotonline.com