Instruments and voices echo within music classrooms. Theater students memorizing lines and learning choreography first occurs in the black box. This is how the Performing Arts Department prepares before a group goes on stage, but behind the scenes, more groups practice than there are spaces available.

The Performing Arts Department shares a singular performance space, the auditorium. In spring, the six directors of the department come together to schedule concerts and productions for the upcoming school year based on past performances and the anticipated school calendar, making sure no events overlap. 

“The biggest thing is we just have to start early because of the fact that we have limited facilities, and not just as far as our auditorium goes, but also as far as secondary spaces, dressing rooms, things like that for different groups,” band teacher Douglas Maloney said.

Each group gets around three to six performances across the year. Secondary spaces may help the department when preparing for those performances, with students needing space to rehearse and teachers needing space to teach classes. Ideally, high schools have different rooms for each of the four performing arts: band, choir, orchestra and theater; whereas at CHS, choir and orchestra have to share a classroom.

“We don’t have enough [secondary spaces],” choir teacher Evan Ayars said. “I feel like I’m doing a disservice to my students, because it’s a struggle to decorate a space that I want to because it’s a shared space with orchestra and guitar.”

Moreover, the auditorium is used by the department and others very often. With theater using it everyday for classes, the department using it for concerts and productions, and driver’s ed holding a parenting safe driving presentation every other month, space availability can be limited.

“We have a very active performing arts department which is wonderful, but we all share the same performance space which makes it very tricky to make sure that we are equitably serving everyone,” theater teacher Andy Shaw said. “Oftentimes, we’ll have stuff going on there over the span of two weeks which makes it very crowded in there.

The departments also combine performances. In early December, the whole department performs four shows together known as the Holiday Spectacular. With a brief moment away from having to schedule individual performances in the auditorium, the groups now have to share one space with all 675 performing arts students.

“When the wind, brass and percussion players join [orchestra], the biggest adjustment for them a lot of times is they have to play out in a way they’re not used to,” orchestra teacher Aaron Mynes said. “Same thing with the Holiday Spectacular. In order for the audience to hear the choir sing, the band has to play softer and is more as an accompanist than they might be used to when they’re on stage playing as a concert. Your role and how you play changes a lot sometimes.”