By Sarah Ostergaard
You are invited. Come enjoy and cheer for Irmo Arts performances.
Our teachers and students pour their hearts and talent into preparing for you. The joy of a live performance comes from a unique mix of nervous, excited energy and a shared human connection in coming together on a fleeting experience much bigger than any individual. On-stage and behind-the-scenes, everyone prepares to make this show the best ever. And the performance must go on, never mind if there are five or five hundred people watching.
At Irmo High School, you have a treat coming up this weekend. The theater department has been relentlessly rehearsing and meticulously planning to perform the play Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells this Friday, November 13 at 6:30 pm and a Matinee Performance this Saturday, November 14 at 3 pm. This play is a fun, festive way to kick off the holiday season while reminding us of the importance of kindness, generosity, and friendship.
Appropriate for all ages.
This is your invitation. The students notice if there are patrons in the audience. They hear your applause, gasps, and chuckles. They see you in the seats. They notice when the community shows up to support them. You matter.
It’s easy to think someone else will accept this invitation. We assume parents and family members will be there for the students. There is yard work, meal prep, soccer games. We’re tired and have all sorts of tasks that never end. This is an opportunity to take the time to slow down, enjoy local talent, and support the hard work, creativity, and dedication of our students and teachers. Your presence makes a difference.
Don’t just take my word for it. Irmo student Jacob Quinones, senior and President of IHS’s chapter of the International Thespian Society says, the audience and how they respond is one of the most important parts of live storytelling. Of the many purposes of putting together and performing a piece of theatre, the audience, in a literal sense, has a very important role. The audience’s reactions, whether it be laughter, sobbing, cheering, ooo-ing or ah-ing, are the mediums through which they connect with us onstage and give us the parts of our story which resonate with them the most. During the rehearsal process, performers don’t have the advantage of an audience, so when an audience is present, it brings the purpose of that storytelling to the forefront of a performer’s mind, allowing them, for the first time in their many iterations of the same story they’ve been practicing to tell, to be a vessel for their character through the intention of the audience’s engagement. Together, we work, as a cast and audience, to push performers past ceilings they never knew they had, putting on a show that couldn’t have been possible without the cast nor the audience.
Irmo High School’s theater teacher Mrs. Amy Mew explains:
The very heartbeat of theatre is storytelling, the synergy and collaborative relationship between the performers and the audience. When a show has a lively and engaged audience, it drives the performers to pour more energy into their performance. That’s the magic of being in the shared space of the auditorium where the story is being told.
With Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells., I challenged my students to focus on the heart of the story: extending peace and goodwill even when it’s hard. My students have truly risen to the challenge, working tirelessly to deliver a performance that is both hilarious and deeply heartfelt. I hope our community comes out to support us – not just to support arts education, but to experience that electric connection firsthand and let a good story touch their hearts.
The message of Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells reminds us that kindness, goodwill, and community matter. Please make time this weekend to sit back, enjoy the show, and experience the magic that happens when a community comes together to celebrate our students.
You can pre-purchase tickets online at gofan.co/app/school/SC1145_1 or pay cash / card shortly before each performance at the ticket window inside the Irmo High School’s Center for the Arts.
Also, there are more opportunities to support Irmo’s performing arts:
- IHS Band Winter Concert: December 1 at 6:30 pm
- IHS Winter Chorus Concert: December 3 at 6:30 pm
- IHS Winter Dance Showcase: December 10 at 6:30 pm
- And in the spring, the theater department will offer the musical Between the Lines on March 19 at 6:30 pm and March 20 at 3 pm.
See you there?
