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Watch
out: We may
break into song. That's because from Broadway, Va., to Beverly Hills, Mich., more than 700 submissions
came from all over the country for our first HSM USA WEEKEND Showstopper, lauding
high school musicals.
Our search for the
best unleashed a torrent. Readers sent mountains of materials showcasing
their shows. There were scrapbooks, programs, cast T-shirts, pink promo
buttons for "The First Robot Rock Opera," plastic electric roses,
photos, newspaper clippings, 11 letters of reference from
"Oklahoma!" cast members at Ruben S. Ayala High School in Chino
Hills, Calif., and even a plush Cat in the Hat, from the Dr. Seuss musical
"Seussical."
Next week, we'll
reveal the HSM USA WEEKEND Showstopper of 2007. And we'll offer an
exclusive poster featuring the hot stars of Disney's "High School
Musical 2," the sequel that airs Aug. 17.
But first, we want to
take you behind the scenes here at Showstopper headquarters. In addition to
the great standards and a huge number of productions of newcomer "High
School Musical," we discovered a host of originals that were worthy of
attention.
Greg Leader, a vice
president at Sports USA Radio Network, wrote "True Colors -- The '80s
Musical," but instead of taking his dream to Broadway first, he
brought it to Glenelg (Md.) High School.
"The '80s were
as foreign to [these students] as the '60s," he says. "But the
issues of racism, economic breakdowns and cliques and things we talked
about in the '80s [still] are prevalent."
Hermione Gilpin, 17,
a rising senior at Cascia Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa, went much further back,
mining Greek mythology to write and direct "Finding Persephone"
at her school.
An absence of guys at
the all-girls School of the Holy Child in Rye, N.Y., didn't stop students from
performing testosterone-heavy 1776. Cast members went through "guy
school" to learn how to act like men, and they did research to capture
their characters. "The Founding Fathers were awesome and put together
the country," says recent graduate Emily Houlihan,
18, who played Thomas Jefferson. "But they had flaws, too."
At the Rhode Island School for the Deaf in Providence, every high school student
takes part in the drama program. This year, the students, who have hearing
losses ranging from mild to profound and/or other learning or physical
disabilities, tackled the difficult choreography and acting of "High
School Musical." Explains drama program founder Dana Janik: "There's a kid in the back row who has cerebral palsy. He's up there, he knows every
step, and it's fine that he can't keep up. He's having a ball!"
Ultimately, her
school's musicals are like others in America: They unite students and the
community. "It's the one thing everyone comes to," Janik says. "The parents are proud to see their
kids doing the same thing every other high school is doing."
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