BWW Blog: Nanjibah Khan - ONE VOICE: THE MUSICAL!

Way back around October and November, a class of eighth graders started writing their very own musical. And I am proud to say that I was in that class! At first, it started off very small. All we had were notebooks and pens and little ideas in our minds that sounded very stupid at the time. We had no idea that such small efforts put together would end up making such a big production.

In January, we all went to go to see NEWSIES: On Tour at the Broward Center of the Performing Arts. It was such a wonderful production and it really inspired us for what our musical was about: The importance of arts programs in various schools. You've definitely heard about budget cuts at many schools. The first things to go, obviously, are the arts programs. Yet, people can't seem to tell that these programs are a creative outlet for students!

We got Chaz Wolcott, who plays Buttons in the production, to facetime us in our very own classroom, where he answered our questions and then scheduled a date to come over and help with our musical. On that day, he came over and told us about all of his fantastic experiences on the national tour. He then proceeded to choreograph one of our most dancey numbers in the musical, called "Nobody Cares."

A musical that started off small was not small any longer. We did two whole performances at the Parker Playhouse, a performance of a few select songs at the Broward Center of the Performing Arts, and were even invited to perform two songs at a school board meeting for saving arts programs!

I have had an absolutely magical experience working on this musical, and it's a shame that it's over. Yet, it still fascinates me that such a small group of students were able to put on something so big! We had a point in the making of the musical where a lot of us were tired of it and were even close to giving up on it altogether... But when we stuck together, we ended up putting together something that not only made it big, but also something that ended up making a difference.

Our motto in the musical eventually rings out true: One voice CAN make a difference! If you'd like to watch any parts of the production, the links are below:

The whole musical below!

Documentary on the making of the musical below!

School board meeting performance: https://becon223.eduvision.tv/default.aspx

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