Medford Show Choir looks toward inaugural performance on Owatonna

MEDFORD—As soon as the flood lights came on, Director Shelley Fitzgerald got right down to business.

“We have a very busy day ahead which means no more messing around,” Fitzgerald said to her actors. “You girls have this down cold and I almost don’t want you getting bored. The boys haven’t been on stage much, so they need some more work.”

In other words, break a leg. Or else.

But Fitzgerald was not speaking to a crowd of seasoned stage veterans. Her cast was a gaggle of 40 wiggly, energetic kids from Medford Elementary School. They are the first ever Medford Show Choir and they will make their on stage debut in just a few short days.

Most of them have never performed before.

“Except for some of the teenagers, these kids had never done anything like this. The boys in particular have amazed me,” Fitzgerald said. “Most are only 9 and the enthusiasm and energy they’ve poured into this has been very fulfilling.”

As for Fitzgerald herself, she has been performing since high school and has been a regular on the theater scene in southeastern Minnesota for the past severa years. She’s done it all— acting, directing, singing and accompanying on piano for productions in Owatonna or Faribault.

But she hadn’t done much theater in her own town, Medford. The opportunities there are normally few and far between so when parents approached her about starting something up she was intrigued.

“Usually I’m busy doing a show in summer. This year I wasn’t so in February I thought maybe this is the year to do something,” Fitzgerald said.

She made her suggestion to Elementary Principal Mark Ristau and he like the idea. Eventually they got Community Education on board and put together a 45 minute show with a minimal budget: $25 for karaoke CDs, costumes from home and no more than $100 for props.

Next she put out fliers at school and waited for a response. To her delight, lots of kids were interested.

“I was really amazed,” Fitzgerald said. “We were crossing our fingers that we’d get 15.”

The kids have been working on a show that consists of song and dance from the musical “Annie” and Disney’s “Newsies.” Owatonna teen Lindsay Redman and Fitzgerald’s own teenage children, Grant and Brittany, helped teach the younger kids choreography and will also sing key parts.

So far the cast is looking pretty good, though they have a few issues to work out before the curtain goes up.

“It’s really coming together even better than I anticipated,” Fitzgerald said.

The show is scheduled for Friday, July 31 at 7 p.m. and Sunday Aug. 2, also at 7 p.m; performed at the Medford High School Auditorium. Parents and siblings of the actors get in free. The general public will pay $3 for general admission.

Clare Kennedy can be reached at 444-2376.

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