Superior Heights performers to present Thank You For The Music

Another Sault high school is celebrating a return to live musical performances after COVID-19 lockdowns.

Superior Heights OnStage will be presenting Thank You For The Music at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 16 and Friday, June 17 at the Sault Community Theatre Centre.

Doors open at 7 p.m. Seating is first-come, first-served.

Admission is free, but donations will be accepted at the door for those who would like to contribute to the musical theatre program at Superior Heights. Proceeds will go toward staging next year’s production.

The performance will be approximately one hour in length with no intermission.  

Superior Heights OnStage is the theatre company for Superior Heights Collegiate and includes students from the Grades 7 and 8 program as well as all secondary students from a variety of disciplines including drama, music, cosmetology, visual art and construction.

"Thank You For The Music is a collection of songs and scenes from past Superior Heights OnStage productions to highlight the talents of current Superior Heights students,” said Anthony Aceti, Superior Heights music teacher and the production’s director. 

“These past productions are Evita, Fiddler on the Roof, Pippin, The Sound of Music, The Music Man, Into the Woods, Beauty and the Beast, Mamma Mia, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. This revue production is a review of the years of theatrical work students have brought to life on stage, and it marks the tenth-show anniversary of the school’s resident theatre company, Superior Heights OnStage,” Aceti said. 

Superior Heights OnStage launched in 2013 and has produced Broadway-sized musicals as an educational tool to instruct students about the art of live theatre, combining music and visual art with dance and acting. 

“Students have learned a wide variety of lessons from these productions, including practicing and enhancing collaborative, time-management abilities, discipline, building initiative, problem-solving, and transferable life skills,” Aceti said. 

For June 16 and 17, elementary schools from across the Algoma District School Board have been invited to attend some special daytime performances of the revue. 

“These performances are a chance to inspire creativity,” Aceti said.

“As an educator, preparing and rehearsing this revue has been refreshing. Returning to an extra-curricular activity that students love has been just the best. It’s an activity that brings out their best selves, their full personalities,” Aceti said in an email.

Aceti shared his thoughts on students presenting music from past productions for Thank You For The Music.  

“It’s a blast from the past, for sure. I knew I wanted to come back to doing live theatre with something small, a revue, but wasn’t sure what direction to take it. When someone suggested the idea of incorporating all the different pieces we’ve done over the years, it really brought me back. There have been so many amazing moments, so many incredible students, since we started doing live theatre at Superior Heights.” 

Aceti is excited not only as an educator, but is happy for the students as well.

“What’s so great about getting to do live theatre again now, in the spring of 2022, is that we’ve got a great combination of past and future. Some of these students were in many of the productions we did before we had to lock down. Our last performance was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and we closed, did the last performance, literally the week before Ford announced that first two week stay-at-home order.” 

Students can participate in the production and actually earn a credit for doing so. 

What can audiences expect to see?

“Well, we want to keep some elements a surprise, for sure, because we’re doing something a little different. The basic idea is to use pieces of script and song and dance from other productions to build an evening of live theatre that flows from one thing to the next. It kind of puts you in this nostalgic mood, a happy place.”