Senior Abigail Schmidtberger practices for Showtime during a weekend rehearsal. Although the big choral event is in May, students begin preparing early for auditions. Photo by Kendra Schwartz
By Kansas Gibler
The weather is still cold and winter sports are still competing, but the choral department is warming its -vocal chords for a springtime highlight: Showtime.
Showtime, the annual showcase of choir students’ talents is planned for April 24-26, but students are already preparing their acts for auditions in February.
“Some of [the preparation] is fun, but some of it’s not at all,” senior Katie Gaches said.
Senior and junior choral students have begun the process of forming groups to audition for Showtime.
The process includes establishing groups, beginning practices, assigning parts and getting an early start on memorization.
“You have to first decide what songs you want to do, you have to get music and recording for them, then you have to get people together and find times to rehearse,” junior Brian Chang said. “Then you sign up for audition times and audition and hopefully you make it in.”
Once students have selected music, groups are formed and sheet music is doled out. The students are asked by their peers to participate in a group, whether the sheet music has a sufficient number of parts or not.
After groups were formed, practices started.
“Usually per group [practices are] once a week for about an hour, an hour and a half,” Gaches said. “So, if you’re in eight groups, plan on having about eight rehearsals every week for an hour or hour and a half. And then, as it gets closer, they might be longer.”
Gaches is one of many seniors who performed in Showtime last spring.
“This is my second year,” Gaches said. “Last year, I was in 13 numbers so I was pretty involved. I enjoy it.”
Dwayne Dunn, second-time Showtime director, sees students’ anticipation for the performance.
“It is one of the highlights of their year,” Dunn said. “Some of them have been working on their acts for more than a year to get ready for auditions. Knowing the high quality that the show has had over the years, they feel a lot of responsibility to maintain that quality , so they put in a lot of time and effort.”
Students pride themselves in the quality of their annual production.
“I think Showtime is really neat because it seems very professional and well done,” Randolph said. “It’s nice because everyone in choir is involved, well, every junior and senior.”
Seniors see this as the perfect cast-off as they leave high school.
“I think for me, it especially ends my senior year on a strong note, whereas I don’t really have a whole lot to do this semester with the exception of academic work,” Gaches said. “All of my college applications are done. I’m just waiting. I have all of my credits, but Showtime is the reason I didn’t graduate early.”
Seniors will celebrate their send off with a final ensemble where they don the apparel of the college they will be attending in the fall.
Many students’ parents participated in Showtime when they were at LHS.
“In a few more years, we will start having our third generation of performers,” Dunn said.
Second generation performers, first generation performers and anyone else can see this year’s production on April 24, 25, and 26 in the auditorium. Tickets will be $7.
“[Being in Showtime] feels special,” Chang said.