Wardlaw+Hartridge students executed all phases of a professional production to provide A Night of Broadway on July 11 in the Berry Performing Arts Center. The show marked the culmination of the school’s Performing Arts and Audio-Visual Summer Program, which emphasized two distinct but interconnected areas related to musical productions: performance, specifically of musical theater repertoire; and production, which includes but is not limited to audio recording, videography, sound and video editing, live audio mixing, and more.
“Our primary goal with this program is to offer young artists a safe place to collaborate and make decisions together, guided and aided by their teachers. We believe their work speaks for itself. Every aspect of this show has been created by the students, from the sound mixing on stage, to the acting choices in front of the camera, to the costumes they are wearing,” said Julian Jenson and Susana Leiva, the program’s creative directors.
Sixteen Wardlaw+Hartridge students enrolled in the program, along with others from area schools. W+H performers included Jayda Richter ’27, Aanya Chaturvedi ’29, Arika Shah ’29, Krishna Kumar ’29, Emily O’Neill ’27, Isabella Paredes ’29, Lexington Donahue ’30, Aarya Patel ’25, Geeta Kumar ’29, Anika Kumar ’29 and Rishi Nihalani ’29. Performer-producers from W+H included Mohisha Jha ’26, Devindar Virdi ’28, Mia Larmony ’29, Allison Maiga ’29 and Sanjana Bhardwaj ’29.
The performance consisted of 17 numbers representing 16 different musicals. Highlights included the full company opening to “Come Alive” from The Greatest Showman, “Freddy My Love” from Grease featuring Aanya Chaturvedi, “I Know It’s Today” from Shrek featuring Lexington Donahue, Krishna Kumar and Aarya Patel, “Holding Out for a Hero” from Footloose featuring Arika Shah, “Six” with W+H students Mohisha Jha, Emily O’Neill, Aarya Patel and Jayda Richter, and the full company finale “And the World Will Know” from Disney’s Newsies.