Bringing “High School Musical” alive
In the span of just two weeks, sophomore Jermaine Hayden was cast as one of the leads, Chad Danforth, in this year’s all-school musical, and accepted into the eMotion Dance Company.
“I’m originally from St. Louis, Missouri but I moved to Houston in August so I could have more opportunities to perform,” Hayden said. “I was part of a youth theatre program at the community college in Missouri but that was the only performing opportunity they had besides school. Houston, on the other hand, is so big. Anything you want to do, you can do here.”
Hayden began his performing career as a dancer and said he realized in first grade that he loved performing.
“After participating in the talent show at my elementary school, I joined my middle school’s show choir and choreographed a lot of our couples’ dances,” Hayden said. “One of my best friends that I met from choir pushed me to try musical theater since I really liked singing and dancing.”
So far, Hayden has acted in two musical theater shows.
“I’ve really only done musical theater during this COVID-crazy era because I started in October of 2020,” Hayden said. “It’s weird because, while everyone else has had to adjust to acting with masks and other precautions, this is just my normal.”
Hayden started the year at Challenge High School, which he said was academically sufficient but didn’t have the opportunities he wanted, so he was excited when he saw what Bellaire’s theatre program was doing on their Instagram.
“Everything happened so fast after I decided [to attend Bellaire],” Hayden said. “I got transferred in one day and didn’t really have time to prepare. It was hard transferring in the middle of the school year when friendships and performances were already established. For example, eMotion had already learned a lot of choreography, so I was behind. Luckily, the musical wasn’t cast yet and honestly, auditioning was kind of scary but I just told myself that ‘this is why I moved to Houston so if I don’t do anything, then it’s pointless.’”
Hayden said his favorite part of performing in “High School Musical” is working with a wide range of students.
“We have the dancers, we have the actors, later down the line, we will have the band and orchestra, tech, hair and makeup,” Hayden said. “Everybody puts so much work into one thing and that’s why musical theater is so much fun.”
Hayden is now acting in the school musical, dancing on the eMotion dance team and taking classes at Hits Theatre, adding up to 20 hours of performing time a week – not including the extra hours he puts into practice.
“It is definitely hard to manage everything,” Hayden said. “A lot of times, I find myself mixing choreography because I have to dance for eMotion, the musical and I’m learning tango dancing at Hits. With school, you just have to find small moments to get things done. I do a lot of homework in the car on the way to rehearsals. You just have to stay dedicated because if you don’t have your grades, you can’t perform.”
Senior Jenny Katzen, who is playing Sharpay Evans in Bellaire’s rendition of “High School Musical,” says she plans a lot to make sure she can get everything done.
“I usually look at my weekly schedule with rehearsals and tests and whatever homework I know about so I can plan ahead,” Katzen said.
Katzen said she was really excited when she found out about HSM and has been having a blast so far with rehearsals.
“Sharpay is such a fun character,” Katzen said. “I found out that we were doing HSM over the summer from Red Bird Production’s Instagram. It’s kind of funny because it’s a movie that a lot of us have grown up with, so getting to bring our own interpretations of the characters alive on stage is a really cool opportunity.”
Katzen said her favorite part of performing in musicals is when actors start doing run-throughs.
“I think it’s so cool getting to see the show come alive and seeing all your hard work paying off,” Katzen said.
Freshman and ensemble member Camila Patino also found out about the musical over the summer.
“I immediately knew that I wanted to audition because I love music, “High School Musical” and dancing – it was perfect for me,” Patino said.
Unlike Katzen, who has been at Bellaire for four years and has been acting for seven years, Patino has never done theater before.
“Even though I’m new, I have really enjoyed rehearsals,” Patino said. “The cast seems like a very fun group and I’m excited to see what the future holds.”
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Dasha Kuzmin • Dec 8, 2021 at 12:14 pm
In my opinion, this is a pretty well written article. There’s a lot of work to do in a musical, the time you put into practice, all the painting for the props and set, memorizing lines, etc., but in the end it all pays off. People clapping for you at the end is probably one of the greatest feelings, and there’s also the feeling of huge accomplishment. There are so many different parts in a production, making it so that there’s something for everyone, even if you don’t necessarily like acting or being onstage.
Tara • Dec 8, 2021 at 12:02 pm
I enjoyed this article; it is interesting to hear about the preparations, for an actor or dancer, that comes with putting on a musical. High school musical was a good movie; I will love to see how the school interprets and changes it. The writing of the article is good as well as it keeps the focus on the topic. I hope the play goes well, and that another article reviewing the musical can be published.
Jeffery Gao • Dec 8, 2021 at 9:45 am
Personally, Jermaine has been a great person to be around and it was nice learning about some of the things he went through to end up at Bellaire. I am mostly excited about his addition into the musical and the energy he will bring to the studio. Jermaine is incredibly talented, but he backs up that talent and continues to improve with his work ethic and is a humerous individual. I am so, so excited to see the final product of the musical and to see Jermaine performing in the future! It was also nice hearing about Katzen’s favorite areas of the show and how it was Patino’s first experience doing theater. I’m expecting great things from the musical and i’m becoming even more excited hearing about more in-depth experiences about it!
Lindsay T • Dec 8, 2021 at 9:45 am
I think that this article was written very well and it was interesting to hear others’ points of view on the musical. I am in the musical here at Bellaire so I can relate to what the speakers were trying to say. I agree that it is hard to balance school and theater and I especially relate to the part about looking at the theater schedule and planning my week around that. I have been doing theater for a long time so I can relate to Katzen in that aspect of the article. I think it is cool that even though we are all part of the same thing, we come from many different skill levels and have different ways we view theater. I am so glad that we are all in the musical together and I can’t wait to see the end product.
rach • Dec 8, 2021 at 9:04 am
I think that it is very impressive for high school students to be putting on this big of a show. It’s really neat to see how well thought out and big a show can be. It’s cool that a sophomore who recently transferred got one of the lead roles as Chad. He looks like he will do a great job. I also think it is nice that the show is going to have a live orchestra instead of just music played from a speaker or computer. From the pictures I’ve seen the costumes look great already. I’ll definitely look forward to the show in January.
Cat • Dec 8, 2021 at 8:57 am
I thought that this article was really well done because it talks about everyone who is part of this musical. It is really cool to me how each person has their own special story, but they are all different. I think that the article discussed the right thing. It mostly focuses on High School Musical because that was the topic, but it ventures out a little more into each actor’s personal life. I loved reading the article because now I have some background information about the actors on stage before I come see the play. Overall, I think that the writers did a great job staying on the topic, but also talking about each actor as an individual.
Cat • Dec 8, 2021 at 8:57 am
I thought that this article was really well done because it talks about everyone who is part of this musical. It is really cool to me how each person has their own special story, but they are all different. I think that the article discussed the right thing. It mostly focuses on High School Musical because that was the topic, but it ventures out a little more into each actor’s personal life. I loved reading the article because now I have some background information about the actors on stage before I come see the play. Overall, I think that the writers did a great job staying on the topic, but also talking about each actor as an individual.
Vivian • Dec 8, 2021 at 8:51 am
First of all “Go Jermaine!!!!!” You did such a great job! You are such a talented person and this just shows how amazing you are. I never knew that you did acting but as the main lead, you must be amazing! You have a ton of energy while dancing and acting with feeling and “eMotion” (ahahhaa, I’m so funny) is perfect for you. I hope that in the future that you will be able to direct your own play. You should do a dance musical version of some play and add your own twist to it! Also tell me when you are going to perform, I’m gonna try my best to make it to one! You got this! Rooting for you!, -Vivian
Max Stear • Dec 8, 2021 at 8:48 am
I did not know we had a theatre program at Bellaire that pulled kids to our school. I knew we had a pretty good one, considering we are such a big school. I also find Jermaine’s story very interesting. I find it admirable that he could have so much motivation to start something when he was young and pursue it all the way to High School. I also agree with Hayden’s point about the wide variety of students being a very appealing part of our programs. Something else I did not know is that we had a Red Bird production program, that is super interesting because kids can have a head start to an acting career as soon as freshman year.