The 20th annual scho show’s theme is “A Blast Through The Past” and it is going to look a lot different than any past scho show performance. 

Senior and Stage Manager, Cherie Stone said the most different thing about this show is, “Instead of it being done for a full audience and with the whole cast together, we are filming dances, skits, and songs so we can combine them all into one ‘movie.’”

The theme will feature two popular songs from every decade since 1960 and have a dance that correlates to the music. The show will also include acting skits that are related to popularized shows of each decade.  

Many students that normally do not participate in theater events get the chance to join the yearly scholarship show that Westerville South performs. Senior Abbey Williams joined Scho show her freshman year because upperclassmen had encouraged her to and now she has participated in the production every year since. 

Williams believes that scho show is a good way to introduce the culture of theater at South to students who do not normally get to experience it and after participating in this show many students join the troupe and participate in other productions and shows that South theater performs.  

Each year a group of seniors that are active in the theater troupe at Westerville South get together and plan the year’s scholarship show. There are directors for every aspect of the production: a singing director, a dancing director, an acting director, a band director, a tech director, and a production and a stage manager.

 All leadership positions are filled by seniors who are involved in the theater and know how to apply what they know to help others who just want to join in the fun of this event. 

At the end of every scho show a senior is awarded a scholarship with the amount of money that the show produced. In years past, this would have been how much money the audience had paid to see the show, but this year it’s going to be shown in a whole new format. 

Instead of having a live audience, scho show is going to be available online and viewers will have to pay a $5 fee to enjoy the show.

This year the audition process was all online, and students sent in video auditions to the directors. If you wanted a singing role, you would send in a singing video; if you wanted to be a dancer, you would send in a dancing video, and this was the case with the rest of the categories as well. For most people, the audition process seemed much more complicated than in years past.

Stone said, “[In previous years] I think it’s been easier to get people that aren’t involved with theatre, in scho show, because they just have to walk into the room for auditions. This year, people really have to take the time to join our google classrooms, film their auditions, and submit them.” 

This year students have to do more work to audition; they have to join the scho show google classroom and send in videos of themselves performing whatever they want to be in the show for. 

Sophomore, Eric Kim said, “For dance, we had to learn it from watching a video, and we don’t know if we’re doing it wrong or not.” 

Stone and Kim had expressed being stressed about scho show this year because there is a lack of communication with the audition format of sending in a video rather than being in person and learning the dance with constant feedback.  

Typically, there have been up to 90 people involved in the scho show production and this year there are a little above 60 students participating. With a smaller number of students participating in the show this year and with the ongoing pandemic, Stone has said, “Nearly nobody will be seen in every skit or dance or song.  Overall, I would say there may be a little less singing, dancing, and acting in this year’s scho show.” 

Given the pandemic, there will not be a chance for a live audience and that seems to be what the students that are involved are missing the most. 

Stone said, “I know a lot of people that aren’t involved with theatre feel more comfortable when they see their friends in the audience.” 

Senior, Dani Wartel can agree that just recognizing familiar faces in the audience is a confidence booster. They feel more comfortable showing off how hard they worked for so long in front of people they know. “It is kind of discouraging to work hard for something and not physically seeing people watch it,” Kim said.

On Friday Oct. 23, auditions were over and now it’s time for the directors to start with the production.