Vocalists will collaborate with high school students to perform the new musical revue Montage.
Montage will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11 and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13 in the S. Arch Thompson Auditorium, 201 E. Adams Ave. in McAlester.
While the production is new to OCU, it has been around for nearly 50 years at McAlester High School. The public high school has teamed with the Wanda L. Bass School of Music to bring back the show.
The musical revue used to be an annual production, but it hasn’t been performed in years. McAlester alumni recently decided to support a new version of Montage, this time using proceeds from ticket sales to help create scholarships for McAlester students. The show will be the first production in the S. Arch Thompson Auditorium since its renovation.
Paul Gebb, director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and Bob Spinks, director of the Non-Profit Leadership Program, are involved with the production. Spinks said he is grateful for the collaboration with faculty from the Wanda L. Bass School of Music.
“I could not be more grateful to Dr. Herendeen and the deans,” Spinks said.
Current undergraduates, along with graduate students and alumni, will perform alongside high school students from McAlester High School, including members of their choir, drama courses and pom team.
Montage is a musical revue that consists of four different sections, each one a different decade, filled with popular music and short sections of musicals. Various versions of Montage were performed by McAlester students between 1959 and the early 1980s.
The program will offer different and interesting opportunities to the OCU students who are participating, Spinks said. The hope is that students will see some of the inner workings of show business as they travel away from their rehearsal space and perform a show in such a short amount of time, he said.
Gebb and Spinks both said the experience gained working on Montage could teach students vital skills needed for traveling shows such as cruise ships and national tours.
Marcus Lonardo, vocal performance senior, said he looks forward to performing Montage next month. He said one of the most exciting things is the collaboration between different students.
“We’re looking forward to seeing them perform, and hopefully they’re looking forward to seeing us perform,” Lonardo said.
Lonardo, along with other OCU performers, will spend the weekend in McAlester, performing the show three times as well as meeting various groups from the community. The group also has been invited to sing The Star-Spangled Banner at the high school’s homecoming football game while they are there.
The show is open to the public. For tickets, visit brownpapertickets.com/event/3608051.
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