LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts to Present ALL SHOOK UP

In a triumphant return following a two-year hiatus owing to the pandemic, the students of Fiorello H. LaGuardia Superior Faculty of Audio & Artwork and Executing Arts will just take to the stage this month for the all-faculty musical general performance of “All Shook Up,” a 2004 Broadway musical that will take the songs of Elvis Presley and turns it into a story of inspiration and inclusion.

LaGuardia college students past done in an all-university musical in 2019, and the university has been preparing for a return to the stage for extra than a year. In deciding upon “All Shook Up,” LaGuardia sought a present that would be enjoyable and entertaining, but also presented an uplifting message of acceptance.

The LaGuardia cast of “All Shook Up” features 51 college students from all 5 boroughs of New York Metropolis, partnering with 11 college students earning up the pit orchestra and 91 dedicated tech college students, who are dependable for anything from making the established, to making costumes, to functioning the lights. Rehearsals have been heading on since late-October and will have amassed more than 250 several hours by the February 13 opening general performance.

“It is so enjoyable to see these youngsters have this prospect to revisit their enthusiasm for on-stage overall performance and to watch them recapture the love and talent which is so much a part of them,” mentioned LaGuardia drama instructor and “All Shook Up” director Lee Lobenhofer.

The pandemic has made specially complex difficulties for the LaGuardia group, as artwork shows and performances moved on the internet all through the 2020-2021 university yr. All through the 2021-2022 faculty calendar year, pupils have returned to the art gallery and phase for a series of amazing drama, dance, fine arts, and tunes displays and performances.

The problems for LaGuardia’s technical theater studio have been notably important as well, as some pupils hadn’t experienced entry to bodily resources to master their crafts for more than a calendar year. The output of “All Shook Up” represents a chance for them, way too, to glow as soon as all over again.

Rounding out LaGuardia’s creation workforce is a proficient trio of choreographers, who are all 2016 graduates of LaGuardia high faculty. Led by Dharon Jones, a LaGuardia dance major who most not too long ago was found as Riff in the 2020 Broadway revival of West Aspect Story, the group also involves Adriel Flete, who a short while ago starred in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 West Side Tale as Julito, and Victoria Fiore, who was highlighted in the 2019 Fx networks series Fosse/Vernon.

“All Shook Up” marks LaGuardia’s 21st all-university musical. LaGuardia alumni who participated in the school’s musicals, including Timothée Chalamet, Lilli Cooper, Lorna Courtney, Micaela Diamond, Jharrel Jerome, Dharon Jones, Samuel Henry Levine and Tomas Matos, have gone on to accomplish on Broadway and in film.

The “All Shook Up” forged and orchestra will perform in masks, which adds a different set of problems but, Lobenhofer explained, also serves as a symbol of the quite a few problems the pupils have get over to make this output a fact.

“All Shook Up” will be done in front of a confined are living viewers, designed up of pupils, school and personnel, and household users of the forged and crew, but 4 of the 6 performances also will be are living-streamed for cost-free by way of LaGuardia Significant School’s site. Performances will choose area on Sunday Feb. 13 at 12 p.m. and 5 p.m., Monday Feb. 14 and Tuesday Feb. 15 at 5 p.m. , and Wednesday Feb. 16 and Thursday Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. The Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday performances will be obtainable by way of livestream, which can be viewed at www.laguardiahs.org/activities.