The students at Blair High School will be presenting this year’s Ovation production, “This is Us!”, on Thursday at 8:00 p.m. at the school’s amphitheater featuring four installments of musicals into three nights of curated song and dance.

Amanda Engstrom, producer of Ovation and choir teacher at Blair High School, decided to draw the content from “Matilda,” “13,” “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and “In the Heights” as a cohesive review backed by professional musicians in the orchestra pit, detailed choreography and a cast containing both middle school and high school students.

According to Blair, these contemporary Broadway shows include hip hop and popular music styles with modern dance, and Blair students play roles mirroring real-life adolescent storylines.

“It’s a creative process that is taking several pieces and connecting them to make an entire evening of professional choreography, music and dancing,” explained Engstrom.

This year’s production has stuck to the same musical format in previous years, but has doubled the size of the cast and expanded the production value greatly to utilize the amphitheatre to its fullest. With the addition of professional lighting and audio, this performance surely contains an element of professionalism.

“Seeing all 43 kids in the cast just being who they are at an accomplished musical level is a great thing to see,” said Engstrom.

One can infer that it is a daunting task to create a show of this nature and requires countless hours of preparation to see the production soar. All of this hard work translates into four months of weekday rehearsals.

“Scheduling busy students and trying to balance what’s appropriate for them and the show has been a challenge, but everything has come together. The kids have been rehearsing four days a week since January. This one feels different,” explained Engstrom.

This is Us! kicks off Thursday at 8:00 p.m. at Blair High School located at 1201 S. Marengo Avenue. The shows are performed in the family-friendly Blair outdoor amphitheatre, with pre-show jazz performances and dinners available for purchase. Performances will be held 4/28, 4/29 and 4/30.

 

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2513557.