NHS drama students entertain during character breakfast

As the song “Tale as Old as Time” played inside of the gymnasium at Aurora Heights Elementary School Saturday morning, drama students from the high school maintained their character roles from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” and entertained children and parents just one week from their performance.

More than 20 children, parents and school faculty attended the character breakfast to get to know the characters of the musical on a personal level. Coloring, story time and singing and dancing were all activities the performers participated in.

“Attendance has been steady — we had story time with Belle and we wanted to have some one on one time with the characters so some wouldn’t be as afraid of them and get to know them a little better,” Julie Creech, paraprofessional at Aurora Heights, said.

Creech said the booster club provided a donation for the first ever character breakfast and students baked items.

NHS theatre director Melinda Worthington said students have been practicing and rehearsing for the production since January and the performance will take place next weekend.

“We’ve done several shows, this is one of the larger musicals we’ve done — the ensemble numbers are bigger and dance numbers,” Worthington said. “The students all come from various drama classes and the kids that are doing this are volunteering to be in this. Some aren’t necessarily dancers and they are doing these large ensemble numbers with big dance moves and they’ve never done it before, so this a new concept for them. They’ve done a wonderful job.”

Emily Bollhoefer, stage manager and assistant director, said the drama department had the event to partially raise money and to raise interest.

“Expect to be wowed at the very least,” Bollhoefer said of the musical. “The students are very dedicated in what they do, and they enjoy working with Melinda and they love to perform.”

Contact Kayla Langmaid at
641-792-3121 ext. 6513 or klangmaid@newtondailynews.com