STORY BY JENNIFER STIENSTRA
The H Wing comes to life in the evening, after most students have gone home for the day, with music and singing echoing all along the hall.
Here, the second-year students from the Musical Theatre program have been working hard at rehearsals for their annual end-of-year show.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of tribute concerts, and Greg Andrews, head of Music Discipline, decided to try something different.
“I thought the best way to [celebrate] would be to just try to pick some of the best songs from the last nine years and package them together and showcase the current second-year students,” said Andrews.
The show will feature music from a variety of eras and artists, such as Kenny Loggins, Glee, James Taylor and music from the ‘70s.
With such a big show to prepare for, a lot of time must go into rehearsals.
“It takes a lot of work, lot of choreography, lot of harmony, lot of group work, a lot of scheduling things on your own but just because it’s a big show,” said Ainsley Roy, one of the theatre students participating in the show.
“Our program is very demanding so doing rehearsals at night as well as keeping up with our school work, it takes a lot of energy.”
Time and scheduling for all of the students is an additional challenge, said Andrews.
“I don’t have the privilege of having an intensive rehearsal period,” he said.
“And it’s always a challenge to organize multiple schedules so that we can rehearse together as a group.”
But despite the hard work, the students look forward to see their efforts bear fruit.
“I’m excited to see how it all comes together when we get on the stage with the lights and the sound and the costumes and everything and to see how it all turns out after months and months of working on it,” said student Dan Byrne.
The students also look forward to performing in Macdonald-Heaslip Hall for the first time.
“This is our first time officially doing a show on the stage so it’s kind of a nice reminder as to why we’re here after two years of a lot of hard work,” said Byrne.
Another reward for the students is working together to pull off this spectacle and showing their families what the program has taught them.
“We’ve been working so hard in this program and finally this is our first chance we get to all perform together, so it’s cool,” said student Jonah McIntosh.
“We get to be on stage and perform for our families and friends that are coming.”
For Andrews and Mary-Lu Zahalan, the two professors who organized the concert, the show will be as rewarding for them as it is for the students.
“Seeing the students transition from performers who had no idea about the songs because it’s not from their era to suddenly learn about the artists that they’re performing and then truly make it their own [is] a really exciting and fascinating process to see,” said Andrews.
The show will take place in Trafalgar’s Macdonald-Heaslip Hall April 23 and 24 at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $25 each and can be bought by calling 905-815-4049 or at https://tickets.sheridancollege.ca/TheatreManager/1/login&event=0.