- Must be tough to be the coach's son.
- He's gonna flip when he hears about the whole singing thing.
- You're worried?
- It's just, sometimes I don't wanna be just the basketball guy, I wanna be, y'know, me.
- I know what you mean.
At my old school, I was labelled as the freaky math girl, and I hated it.
- Yeah, it's like, you can't let people stop you from doing what you want to do, right?
[Cruz] - My character, Troy, he is a basketball player, and he meets this girl named Gabriella
at a ski trip resort-type party New Years karaoke thing...
[Piper] - ...and it turns out that she goes to his school in high school, and they meet
each other, and she kind of shows him that it's okay, you can do other things besides basketball.
So they audition for the play together, and everybody's kinda like, torn up on, like, whether
they should be okay with it, or like, follow their hearts too.
[Adam] - We try to stop them in any way possible from getting into, quote unquote, "Our Musical".
[Katie] - We've been in the program so long that we don't anybody to have our spotlight
at all, cause it's our musical, and we're controlling all the cliques, we want everything
to be the way it is, and how it's supposed to go is according to us, because, you know,
we're the head of the school, we're the rich kids.
[Kaila] - And in the end, they audition for the musical, Troy still plays basketball,
Gabriella still does science, but they can each do what they really want to do in the end.
[Allison] - It's all about students being able to explore different passions, and accepting
one another for who they are, not for what they're "supposed to be", and for sticking
to the status quo.
[Singing] - No, no no no, stick to the stuff you know!
If you want to be cool, follow one simple rule: don't mess with the flow, no, no,
stick to the status quo!
[Allison] - So, High School Musical we chose because of the group of students that we were
working with this year.
We have a really large group of dedicated students in our arts program at Woodhaven.
In our cast of 45, we actually have 25 Grade Nines, which is an amazing number of older students
participating, and we really wanted this show to be a tribute to them and a tribute to their
dedication to the arts, and we really wanted to have a big ensemble show, so that all of
our students can get that starring, shining moment on stage.
[Kaila] - We started rehearsals in October, and we rehearse Monday to Wednesday, 3:30-5:00,
so it's a lot of commitment for these kids.
Some of those kids don't have to be at every rehearsal, but some of them have to be at
them all, some of them are strictly vocal rehearsals, some of them are just choreo,
and some of them are just acting.
So the level of commitment is very very high.
[Penny-Lee] - And I know last week when it got really really cold, everybody else was
at home drinking some hot chocolate, and we were here at our school rehearsing for the
whole day.
I realize like how much work it takes, and like how hard it must be for those people
who are like, main characters, and they have so many lines, like, even my roles, as an ensemble
character is still hard, and I can't believe how hard it would be for main characters,
but like, you know, they take the time, they work on it, and they have- they do their best.
[Piper] - Definitely the most challenging part is doing fast movements and singing,
cause it's just like, bouncing your voice and it's really hard.
[Cruz] - Troy's vocals are kinda up there sometimes,
especially in "Get'cha Head in the Game";
you definitely have to get up on the scale.
[Troy, singing] - Maybe this time we'll hit the right notes!
[Cruz] - But, it worked out, and once again, dancing - not my forte.
[Adam] - I'd say just getting a feel for your character, being able- like, trying to get
used to choreo, and make it look natural, I guess?
Like, I was very robot-like in the start.
[Katie, giggling] - You were like- you were like a newborn deer when we started choreo.
[Ryan] - This feelin's like no other!
[Sharpay] - I want you to know!
[Ryan & Sharpay] - I've never had someone that knows me like you do, the way you do.
I've never had someone as good for me as you, no one like you.
[Katie] - For me, personally, it's definitely the quick changes, and just everything going
on at once, and also trying to be mean to people, cause I consider myself a nice person,
so just being kinda mean, it's like, okay, I have to discern that I am not Sharpay,
I am Katie - yeah, that's probably the hardest part for me.
[Kaila] - I really love the end product that we have, I love giving the kids this opportunity
to be on stage and find something in themselves they didn't really know was there before.
We see kids on the stage that maybe never thought they could sing, and we see them singing
with a whole bunch of other people.
I just love giving them this opportunity to, to do this.
[Allison] - Out of everything involved in the production, what I love seeing the most is those students
being sparked, and I love them, you know, stepping on stage for the first time and
coming backstage and having goosebumps and being so excited, and I just love to see students
becoming confident and being so proud of something that we have created together as a group.
Being part of an arts program, I think, is extremely important for students.
I think you can learn incredible teamwork, you can become confident in yourself onstage,
and you also gain an appreciation for other people.
Even for students that don't want to get up on stage and sing and dance, being a part of
a tech crew- maybe you can paint, you can do sets, or maybe you have a flair for fashion,
you can do costumes.
I would say if you ever thought about it, give it a chance, just go for it!
You never know what you can do until you try.
[Singing] - Wildcats, everywhere!
Wave your hands up in the air!
That's the way we do it, let's get to it, c'mon!
Everyone!
[Applause]