For many years, I have been thrilled to conceive and create our Winter Shows for Hollywood Schoolhouse. This includes; deciding on a show idea, creating vocal medley’s, dance numbers, show scripts, set pieces, lighting design and preparing all this, and more, all with a live four piece band! The Winter Show is one of my favorite productions at HSH because it is the only production throughout the year that shares a theme, title, songs, and often a few costume accessories. It is taught and rehearsed to the respected divisions simultaneously and brings a real sense of community, uniqueness, and happiness to our school.
The Winter Show, for the students, is full of valuable lessons to be learned and emotions to be experienced. Students learn the theory, history, and technique of the vocal & dance numbers, how to work as a team on stage, how to create spatial awareness, and how to hold and present themselves on stage. The children learn the importance of their individual class numbers and its impact on the show’s integrity and cohesiveness. Technical aspects of the stage are also a focus; such as, how to find your light and how to properly hold a microphone. Other valuable lessons include, stage direction, stage confidence, public speaking, stage fright, character, improvisation, projection, and memorization. We will continue to teach and practice these lessons with your children throughout the remainder of the school year. The Winter Show is a great performance outlet for the students to challenge themselves and work on putting all the components together, ultimately feeling proud of their accomplishments.
The Old Vegas theme, eventually titled, “A Stardust Holiday” was chosen because I wanted to take the children to a place and time of some of the greatest songs ever written. These numbers are some of the best classics, sung by the greatest legends, full of historical significance and are perfect for any season. Vocally, I wanted to challenge the children without exceeding grade level music expectations. This genre lead to some difficult musical numbers, however the children were up for the challenge. For the dance numbers, I knew I wanted to explore a different style for each class and introduce a little more partnering and footwork. We ended up with a Rumba, Mambo, Tap, Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical, Polka, and a Country Line Dance. The songs for the dances came pretty quickly to me and soon would come the Ultimate Test...the children’s approval! Luckily, there were no big misses and the children enjoyed the unforgettable music hits by the iconic crooners and ultimate Vegas headliners.
Once again, Hollywood Schoolhouse students were confronted with a level of difficulty, and they rose to the occasion! Congratulations to all of the HSH students for their spectacular performances and a huge, “thank you” to the teachers, administration, staff, alumni, and parent volunteers for your help in making the Winter Show an unforgettable learning opportunity for the children. I look forward to exposing the HSH students to more positive experiences and challenging performances.