Eat, drink, be merry!
Skyview presents 'Roaring Twenties' extravaganza
A dinner theater extravaganza is on tap tonight at Skyview High School in Soldotna, as a good portion of the student body participates in a tribute to the "Roaring Twenties."
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Put together in less than a month by English and theater teacher Terri Zopf-Schoessler, other faculty members, 150 students and many parents, the show features dancing flappers, a singing swing choir, the tango, skit comedy, vaudeville and jokes galore.
"We started this show in October," Zopf-Schoessler said as she watched parent Barb Massey teach students the tango during a recent rehearsal.
"Barb really saved me with the tango," Zopf-Schoessler said. "I was trying to learn it from a book and then teach the kids."
She said Massey had previously taught students to swing dance and was thrilled to find out she could teach them to tango, as well.
"Now the kids want to tango at school dances," she laughed.
One student already knew the tango and was enlisted to help teach it to his classmates. Justin Merrill, a 16-year-old sophomore, learned the classic Argentinean dance from Massey, who taught it through a church function.
Merrill said he also will perform as a part of the swing choir.
Photo by Jay Barrett
"This is a real interdisciplinary show," he said. "The home-ec class is doing the food and the history class is helping with posters to depict the time period."
Zopf-Schoessler said the technology department is helping by putting together old newsreel footage to be projected on the stage between numbers and will broadcast the entire show live on the Internet.
Coordinating all the different elements was a logistical challenge, with coaching dialog, making costumes and all the other elements that need to come together for a show of this magnitude.
Through all that, Zopf-Schoessler also had to to work with students who had scheduling conflicts with hockey and wrestling practice.
Photo by Jay Barrett
And it wasn't just the boys who had to schedule dance practice around wrestling practice. Melina Hutchinson, who performs as a flapper and in the tango number, is a standout wrestler and had the same problem.
"I like dressing up, but not in this," she said with a smile, referring to her red, fringed flapper dress.
Tonight's event is a dinner show, which is sold out, and begins at 6.
A special dessert show, with tickets priced at $5, will be given Nov. 30.