Dozens of teenagers dance around the Mariner stage at Homer High School, dressed in cropped trousers, tweed caps and suspenders. A song from the Disney musical “Newsies” resounds from the pit, where a community orchestra of violins, an oboe and a trumpet sit beneath the stage.
“This group of students is anywhere from freshman to seniors in high school,” said Kyle Schneider, director of choral activities at Homer High. “You're looking at about 60 students on stage, plus another 10 in the back.”
For the first time in five years, Pier One Theatre, Homer High School’s choral program and a community orchestra are working together to put on a theatrical production: Opening night for “Newsies” happens this Friday.
The high school doesn’t have a theater program. So productions like this weekend’s are put on through the school’s choral program — meaning kids of all grades and musical or theater interests can sign up.
“It really does create a very interesting community within the choir, because not only do we have the students who are very much in choir because they love to sing, but we also have the students who are in choir because they want to act and they want to dance or they want to help with sets or they want to help with theater tech,” Schneider said. “So it creates a very cool community.”
Every year, Schneider sits down with a shortlist of about 10 shows and narrows it down based on who’s joined the choir. The last time the school collaborated with Pier One and the orchestra on a show was in 2018, for Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story.”
This year, they’re doing “Newsies,” a musical about a group of young newspaper salesmen in 1890s New York City who go on strike when their publisher makes it harder for them to make a buck. It’s inspired by the real-life Newsboys Strike of 1899, which stopped circulation of two papers — the World and the Journal — for two weeks.
Historically, newsboys would buy papers from the publisher at 50 cents per hundred, and sell them at 1 cent each, for a profit of half a cent per paper. But several publishers in the late 1890s raised the cost of a newsboy's bundle from 50 cents to 60 cents, leading to the strike.
Disney released a musical film in 1992 about the strike, starring Christian Bale and Bill Pullman, that was later adapted for the stage. Schneider said it’s been a favorite of his for a while.
“This is one of the shows that I fell in love with as a young musician, as a young artist, as a young singer,” he said.
Schneider said this was not a show he took on lightly. It’s involved a lot of stage direction, two choreographers and three months of rehearsal. But he had a big group of both singers and dancers in his classes, which is why he decided on the dance-heavy production.
“But it's also because of the story,” he said. “We talk to our students every single day about using your voice and about advocating for yourselves. And this is just a great storyline about advocating for yourself. It's been incredible for me as a director and as a teacher and as an adult in their lives to be able to watch them grow through the process.”
Tickets for the musical are available in advance at the Homer Bookstore. Opening night is Friday at 7 p.m. at the Mariner’s Theatre, with two more productions on Saturday at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Disclosure: Kyle Schneider is on KBBI’s Board of Directors.
