The Show Must Go On, But Not For Huntington Beach APA Seniors

It’s March 13th, opening night of Beauty and The Beast at Huntington Beach High School’s Academy of the Performing arts, and everyone is in a frenzy.  The week prior consisted of constant rehearsals, from 5 pm until 10 pm.  High school senior Kaitlyn Campbell has been working tech for most of her high school career, so this isn't anything new to her.  For the past couple of weeks she has been working the lighting, painting the background sets and running the show over and over again, in order to get it absolutely perfect.  But on opening night, with more than half the seats sold out, all shows are cancelled, as well as school for the next two weeks.  No one expected to lose a whole semester due to the novel COVID-19.  Kaitlyn Campbell worked tirelessly on her last high school show, but with no audience to perform it to.  

The Academy of the Performing Arts, also known as APA, has been a part of Huntington Beach High School since 1993.  The program consists of high school students who love anything having to do with performing arts.  Every year, there are about 12-14 main stage shows that take place at Huntington Beach’s historic theatre.  This was the first year that multiple shows have been cancelled.   “The seniors are devastated,” says APA supervisor Susan West. “At first, I couldn’t tell if the staff were hurting more than the students.  There’s just so much love that goes into these shows.”

Most of the cast and crew of the show knew what was to come, even though nothing had been confirmed by the district.  On the day of opening night, students who were in the show were pulled out of class.  Campbell recalls the day, “they had us perform the second cast for just a camera.  That’s when some of us started to get freaked out.  For a lot of us, that was our last musical.”

Prior to her senior year, Campbell had worked almost 70 shows within the last three years.  Just this school year alone she has worked on Gypsy as a scenic designer, Sweeney Todd as a stage manager and a lighting designer for both Sweeney Todd and Beauty and The Beast.  On top of that, she has painted sets for all three of these shows. “Almost everyday or every week I was scheduled to work.  I miss it.  I miss my friends.  My tech friends are my family because I spend so much time with them, almost more than I do my real family.” 

A typical day for Campbell would consist of going to school throughout the day and then attending rehearsals for the main stage show at 5 pm.  After a quick dinner run she would go to the theatre to turn everything on, about 15 or so minutes before rehearsal begins.  She would work until 10 pm, when rehearsals typically end.  She however, would stay about 20 minutes later than everyone else in order to receive notes from her stage manager and to power everything off.  Now, her days consist of online classes via google hang out and zoom.  Campbell expressed that she had “worked almost every show, plus the outside shows that were paid.  So even just for the first two weeks, that had been the longest I had gone without being in a theatre for my entire time in high school.” 

Delaney Blair, another APA senior, was going to be on stage for Beauty and the Beast as one of Gaston’s adoring fans.  As someone who had been doing theatre for her entire high school career and more, Blair expressed her disappointment at the cancellation of the show, and not having the chance to say goodbye to those who worked alongside her. “I have friends that I’ve been doing theatre with for the past 8 or 9 years, and that was our last performance together. It’s really depressing to think that all of us worked years of high school theatre for it to be done and we didn’t even get to have an audience for it.” 

Although the year hasn’t gone exactly as planned, the APA administration isn’t too concerned with the amount of money lost from the cancellation of shows. “We have a couple of foundations that have stepped it up and are doing fundraisers. We’re trying to offset some things that way,” West remarked.  “But really our main concern, it’s not even about money, it’s about comforting the kids.” 

In order to show the seniors how much they appreciate all the work they’ve done, APA administration started handing out lawn signs congratulating any APA seniors. “We had teachers and college student assistants all write in 200 names for every senior.  Then everybody pitched in and we went and put them around town.” Delaney Blair recalls the day she received her lawn sign.  “When I got the sign, it was very shocking to me.  I don’t live in Huntington Beach, I’m about 45-50 minutes away, so when I saw that they still came out and gave me one made me feel really nice.” 

Aimee Ganiere was a part of the show in a different way.  Ganiere was part of the orchestra pit and also spent 5 hours each day rehearsing for the show.  When she found out it wasn’t going to happen, she was devastated. “The main thing I’m hurt about is the show, Beauty and the Beast. We worked so hard on it and it was an amazing show.”  Ganiere was also part of the orchestra's piano ensemble as well as jazz band, for which all shows have been cancelled.  Now, all there is to do are online classes. “I’ve been in band since my sophomore year and- you can’t do band online,” Ganiere states.  Band classes have consisted of each player playing their part of the song, but rehearsals will never be the same on zoom as they are in real life. “In class, you play together with about 100 kids and you just make music and you have your part that you work on and it just sounds so good.  You don’t get that over a zoom call.”  

Having not been able to do what she loves, Kaitlyn Campbell discusses how much technical theatre means to her.  Even though life as a “techie” can be chaotic and difficult at times, she finds that it’s all worth it. “We get to make some really amazing shows.  None of us are in it for the fame or the money or anything like that, we don't have a tech bow, we don’t get anything like that and we’re totally fine with it because we’re in it because we love theatre.” 

Although Campbell is saddened by not taking part in any of the tech senior activities, or performing anymore shows, she’s grateful for the time she had at APA, even if it ended sooner than expected.  “It’s been hard not being able to see my teachers or my friends and having that support system around me but I wouldn’t trade everything I’ve done in my high school experience for the world because I’m just glad that I got to do it at all.”