The stars of the show are calling it the “Drama Buddies Live Concert.”
And the community is invited to attend this one-night musical affair at Glynn Academy at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium, where the GA Drama Buddies will put on their first spring show featuring a range of music, from show tunes to pop classics to recent radio hits.
The GA Drama Buddies is a group under the direction of Michelle Styn, a paraprofessional at Glynn Academy, and is made up of special education students.
The show includes group numbers, musical solos and duets, and dance solos and duets.
Songs like “Hakuna Matata” from the Lion King, the “Star Spangled Banner,” “Schuyler Sisters” of Hamilton fame, “Beat It” by Michael Jackson and more will bring a high level of energy to the auditorium and have audience members tapping their toes to the infectious beats.
“I enjoy getting to be up here with my friends,” said Lizzie Patrick, a GA Drama Buddies member. “And I get to sing the songs that I know.”
Many of the students also participate in the Penguin Project, a local program through which young people between 10 and 25 years old with developmental disabilities put on a musical each year.
Styn said she wanted to offer a performance opportunity at school for students who may not be able to take part in Penguin Project activities.
“With this program, we just rehearse during fourth block,” she said. “That way they’re not having to come to after-school rehearsals.”
The students were in a Christmas show last semester, and this will be the first spring show for the Drama Buddies program, which Styn started in 2019 just before the pandemic closed schools and interrupted all theater activities.
Styn has also helped coach the GA Players for more than a decade, and two of her sons are involved in musical theater.
She said she has watched many students come out of their shells over the course of rehearsals. Drama programs like this create a community and provide students with an outlet, Styn said.
“It lets kids just be who they want to be without judgment, and they just are a family,” she said.
Some of the special education students in the program take regular speech classes to improve their verbal skills. Performing on stage fosters the same kind of learning, but can be much more fun.
Styn has seen some students who aren’t often verbal transform when they sing.
“It’s just something about the music and being able to move their bodies freely and just be themselves and dance and not feel like they’re being judged,” she said. “These kids have taught me way more than I’ve taught them. They have taught me how to look at life in a whole new light.”
The show’s run time is about an hour and a half.
All in the community are welcome to attend. There is no admission cost, but Styn encouraged anyone willing to make a donation in a box that will be set up at the auditorium. She hopes to expand the program next year into a full musical, which requires purchasing of the rights. That cost can range from $3,000 to $6,000.
Special education teacher Cassie Busby said her students have talked about little else for the past two months due to their high levels of excitement for the show.
“It’s just fun to see them perform on the stage and get their moment to shine,” she said. “They did great during the Christmas performance, and Michelle has really taken this and run with it.”
Gena Churchwell, who also teaches special education classes at GA, said she’d love to see a whole musical production for the students next year.
“It’s just brought out a side of them that they don’t get to show when they’re in class,” she said.
For more information, email Styn at [email protected].