The Whitehall High School Drama Club will perform “Elf Jr. the Musical” on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 9 and 10, with shows at 7 p.m. on Friday and 2 and 7 p.m. on Saturday in the high school auditorium.
Based on the cherished New Line Cinema hit, “Elf Jr.” features songs by Tony Award nominees Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin with a book by Tony Award winners Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin. The story concerns Buddy, a young orphan who mistakenly crawls into Santa’s bag of gifts and is transported to the North Pole.
Whitehall High School music teacher Melissa Clark is the show’s musical director, and Whitehall Elementary School special education teacher Rachel Waters is choreographer and is taking care of any “behind-the-scenes stuff,” as she put it.
The show involves about 40 students from eighth through 12th grade. The 16 rehearsals scheduled for the show began Tuesday, Nov. 1, and run Mondays through Thursdays from 3 to 5 p.m. until dress rehearsal week at the beginning of December.
“We’ll do dress and tech rehearsals that week, give the kids Thursday off and then open on Friday, Dec. 9,” Waters said.
Waters is grateful for the students’ participation: “With the start of practice for the winter sports season this week, students are juggling a lot of activities right now, and we’re happy they are involved with ‘Elf.’”
Up until this year, the drama club’s fundraising events have included a basket party and one show only.
Waters said, “We just announced that instead of the basket party, we will be doing a second show in the spring.” The second show will be the teen edition of “Chicago.” “The students were really excited about the reveal,” Waters said.
Tickets for “Elf Jr.” are $10 and have just gone on sale through the school’s website, railroaders.net. Ticket purchasers can scroll down the home page of the website to find the link to purchase tickets.
