Think back to what life was like in high school. Whether you were the class valedictorian, the class clown, the quarterback, the band kid, the popular kid or the book worm, UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television will allow you to revisit the halls of high school in the fall production “Is There Life After High School?”
What began as a book by Jeffrey Kindley, first published in the 1980s, is now a musical performed by UCLA master of fine arts students about the good, bad and funny things people go through in high school.
The musical is directed by theater, film and television Professor Gary Gardner, and all choreography and musical direction is student-run, with a cast consisting entirely of graduate students. Performances run through Dec. 5.
“I want the audience to remember when they were in high school. I want them to go, “˜Oh God, that same thing happened to me.’ It’s a lot of remembrances. The popular kids, the not popular kids and basically what happens to them after high school,” Gardner said.
The set is simple, consisting of a relatively bare stage and a reunion sign.
The play features a range of adults in their late 20s and 30s at their high school reunion. As they reconnect, they look back on the decisions they made in their lives and how these choices shaped who they are today.
According to Colin Simon, an actor and a graduate student in theater, working on the production made him nostalgic for his own high school years.
“Oddly enough I re-read my high school yearbook with all of the comments. I actually got back in touch with a high school girlfriend I haven’t spoken to in three years,” he said.
During auditions, students had to reveal their most embarrassing high school memory, and the ones deemed exceptional were kept in the show.
“It’s (based on) the original book, but it’s also remembrances by some of the students,” Gardner said.
While Dash You, a graduate student in acting, attended high school in England, he said that he was able to compare the performance with his own experiences.
“It brought the whole memory about my high school back. It’s not a specific memory, but it’s a whole experience that came back to me,” You said.
While the show is a musical, You said that only four cast members have professional vocal training.
Sarah Ellis, the musical director and a doctoral student in theater and performance studies, said she was impressed at how quickly the cast learned the harmonic pieces required of their characters.
“Everybody’s voice comes together (and) even though … you would not choose them as soloists individually, they blend into this absolutely wonderful sound,” Ellis said.
The music ensemble is relatively small, Ellis said. The performance includes two keyboards and a percussionist, with an overall sound leaning toward the pop genre.
One song, “The Kid Inside” encompasses much of the musical’s theme.
“(The song is) this nostalgic remembrance for the ensemble of the high school kid that still lives inside all of us. (The song) reflects back on simpler times and also challenging times in ways that you were able to overcome,” Ellis said.