Amid all the uncertainty about in-person learning and pandemic precautions, can the high school musical survive?

Yes, say schools across the region, the show will go on ... line.

To keep students safe while putting together a full musical production, high schools have gotten into the streaming game, which often means using the school’s audio/visual equipment.

Media and theater teacher Joshua Baker was heartbroken to have to cancel South Park High School’s production of “Chicago” last year when lockdowns and remote classrooms took over the spring semester. This year, the streaming rights to “Chicago'' were unavailable, so he decided to go with another familiar show: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music.” The women’s prison set of “Chicago” became the von Trapp residence. Cameras were brought in, and actors stayed 6 feet apart.

“We have had an all-student crew,” Baker said. “They built the sets, they run the lights, they design the lighting plot, they run the sound, they mic the actors. The only thing I’m doing this time is I’ll be directing the show and literally calling the shots this time.”

With the cast, crew and students in the orchestra pit, filming becomes a several-night event; the building is cleared each night after a certain amount of time to maintain safety.

Uncertainty has been a constant tension. What if a lead actor is exposed to COVID-19 and must quarantine for two weeks? How long is it safe to film a group dance scene? Can the choreographer get vaccinated? When several COVID cases were found at South Park, the school went back to remote learning, and Baker was forced to cancel rehearsals the rest of the week.

One local school had it even worse. Beaver County Christian School in Beaver Falls confirmed on March 24 a coronavirus outbreak traced to the school musical, according to reports by the Beaver County Times. A lead in their production of “Good News” tested positive for the virus following final performances, which ran March 17-20 with socially distanced seating and livestreaming.

Students had been attending and rehearsing in person since August, and up until the week prior, the school had only seen three confirmed COVID-19 cases. Another student who had attended in-person classes and rehearsals tested positive, but the show continued. 

Principal Steve Wellendorf said Beaver County Christian had no evidence the initial case was a source of community spread until after the musical. Eventually the school announced “multiple musical cast/crew members across most grade levels” had contracted the virus. All classes at the K-12 school were moved to remote learning until Easter break.

At Pine-Richland High School, producer Kathy Morrissey chose “High School Musical” and made the entire building her set, which helped with social distancing and saved on backdrops. She is also on the athletic department staff, which meant she knew when the gym would be open for basketball scenes in the Disney stage adaptation.

The entire audition process was done remotely as students recorded themselves singing, dancing and performing a monologue. Morrissey said they plan to continue remote auditions when the pandemic subsides.

“Kids got a chance to record themselves and give the best take of themselves instead of being incredibly nervous in front of us and blowing it and us missing out on somebody really good,” she said. “We see everyone at their best.”

She said she also chose the musical because the story of different social cliques — brains, jocks, theater kids — made it possible to split the cast into quarantine pods to minimize contact. The student pods, however, were “a double-edged sword.” On one hand, lead actors would be taken out of their groups, often while the pod was rehearsing something else, and had to catch up with practice at home. On the other hand, directors were able to have more one-on-one time with students and get to know them better, Morrissey said.

Art teacher Jennifer Haberberger resolved to get Penn-Trafford High School’s 2020 musical “Footloose” out where someone could see it. After being forced to cancel an in-person production, she had to appeal to obtain the rights to stream a showcase version with the songs. That didn’t happen until July.

At Pine-Richland and Penn-Trafford, actors recorded all their vocals separately and performed to playback during filming wearing masks. Haberberger compared spreading out students on stage to record vocals to the celebrity singers in the studio for the famous “We are the World” music video.

Baker and Haberberger pointed to the availability of high school sports and said theater, with precautions, could operate in much the same way.

Penn-Trafford’s production of Stephen Schwartz’s “Working” is its third show done during the pandemic. The musical about different occupations is being filmed as separate scenes and edited together like a movie rather than one uninterrupted stage performance.

“We’ve learned so many things that we would have never had to know how to do,” Haberberger said. “We could go on tour to teach schools how to do a socially distanced performance for streaming.”

At Westinghouse Arts Academy in Wilmerding, students produced a musical with a smaller cast, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” They also tried their hand at streaming the show live with multiple cameras rather than prerecorded. The school gave a certain number of tickets for parents and relatives to watch in person, capacity permitting.

“The kids are thrilled that they didn’t miss out on another opportunity,” Westinghouse Arts Academy CEO Rick Fosbrink said. “That’s been the most rewarding part of it.”

“I would get frustrated when people would say, ‘It always comes together in the end.’ I feel like we’re discrediting all the hard work people have to do to make it happen. It is a challenge to get this done during the pandemic, but theater people always find a way to get it done,” he said.

For Jennifer Bronder, that meant maximizing creativity. As the musical director for Knoch High School in Jefferson, Butler County, she chose to do “Beehive: The ’60s Musical,” a revue featuring the turbulent decade and the tunes that became its soundtrack. Streaming was the only option with a 40-person cast.

For a diner scene, they dressed up the school’s cafe. For the Woodstock scenes, they got permission to film at Hartwood Acres Park in Hampton. The pit orchestra and soloists performed individually in the school’s recording studio, and that music was blended with ensemble harmonies recorded at home. A final mix was used to overdub the on-camera performances.

Bronder and other staff members praised the students’ resilience and earnestness in adapting to all the changes required to bring the show to life safely. Knoch’s musical is typically staged on the first weekend in March. Students are now putting in an extra two months of work, running from spring sports that wouldn’t normally conflict to make it to rehearsals.

“Musical directors all across the area are trying to reinvent the wheel,” Bronder said. “I guarantee they’re all putting in a ton more work than they would be if they were staging the show the way they did two years ago. There isn’t a school that isn’t tackling something completely new because of the pandemic.”

In South Park, Baker said residents were surprised and pleased to hear that the high school musical would go on. An added benefit: No matter where in the world viewers are, they can still watch the show online.

“I think the fact that we’re doing anything at all has been eyebrow-raising and quite joyous for a lot of people because this year there’s been so much loss,” he said. “The fact that we’re able to have this at all has been terrific.”

Tyler Dague: rdague@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1569 and on Twitter @rtdague.

First Published: April 5, 2021, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: April 5, 2021, 10:13 a.m.