The Fort Atkinson High School transformed into a multifaceted performing arts venue Friday and Saturday as the district, in partnership with the VOICES parent organization, hosted the 26th Annual Fort Show Choir Showcase Invitational.
Arriving Saturday evening, Fort Atkinson Online was on hand to watch the Fort Atkinson High School South High Street Singers deliver an exhibition performance, keeping a gym fully packed with show choir performers and their guests entertained as judges tallied the scores for placement in the competition’s preliminary round.
Over the course of the two-day event, some 3,000 participants passed through the high school doors, Superintendent Rob Abbott told the crowd, as he joined master of ceremonies Aaron Athas, an accomplished singer, music educator, and a former member of the South High Street Singers, on stage to hand out certificates of participation to 21 visiting high school show choirs. During the short ceremony, judges named six preliminary round winners who would next perform in the championship round.
By the event’s end, around 11 p.m., Central Singers, Inc., of Davenport Central High School, was named Grand Champion.
Photos taken Saturday evening follow.
Members of the Fort Atkinson High School South High Street Singers fill the stage with motion and sound. Performances were held in the high school gym. Fort Atkinson High School Theater Managing Director John Collins noted that Lighthouse Productions, a Green Bay-based company skilled at erecting performance stages, was hired to build a stage and platform system for the invitational competition.
Members of the Fort Atkinson High School South High Street Singers deliver an exhibition performance Saturday evening.
Members of the Fort Atkinson High School South High Street Singers performed “Out in the Cold,” by Tom Petty, which included a solo performance by Jackson Sitkiewitz; “Steal the Light,” by Cat Empire; “Wintertime,” by Norah Jones, which included a solo performance by Logan Recob; “Spring Break Baby!,” original, featuring soloists Brian Valdez Chavez and Abbey Hoffman, and “I Got the Music,” by Julie and the Phantoms.
Performers dance across the stage. During the exhibition performance, nine adjudicators determined which six of 21 competing show choirs would move to the championship round.
A soloist takes center state during the exhibition performance given Saturday by the Fort Atkinson High School South High Street Singers.
Fog drifts across the stage as a soloist performs
Fog flows across the stage and drifts out into the audience.
Several members of the Fort Atkinson High School South High Street Singers are captured as they perform. The 30-member mixed gender choir is directed by Kiah Snow and choreographed by Ben Schrank.
Singers change costumes and return to the stage. Pieces performed by the choir demonstrated explosive, high-energy choreography.
A hair flip caught in the moment.
Performers move across the stage. The Fort Atkinson High School South High Street Singers, according to information shared in the evening’s program booklet, began competing in 1994. The choir found its inception in the 1970s as a co-curricular class, born from “a need for students to have the opportunity to study pop-culture music,” the program stated.
Members of the Fort Atkinson High School South High Street Singers pause at the end of a piece. The South High Street Singers, in recent years, have participated in show choir competitions in Milton, Monona Grove, Sauk City, as well as Davenport, Iowa, and Fridley Minn., according to the printed program.
Fort Atkinson High School music teacher Justin Steger, at center, conducts Fort Atkinson High School band students from behind the stage as they support the South High Street Singers.
Fort Atkinson band students perform.
Fog drifts behind the stage where Fort Atkinson band students accompany the South High Street Singers.
The Fort Atkinson High School South High Street Singers perform in exhibition before an audience that fills the high school gym.
Male singers are featured in a choreographed set. This year, the South High Street Singers will be performing in competitions held at high schools in Janesville, Milton, Sauk Prairie, Monona Grove and Chicagoland.
This singer brings emotion to the performance.
Students work together to convey the mood of each piece.
Singers demonstrate choreography packed with enthusiasm.
The full choir on stage.
An audience member tries to capture the fog.
Members of the Fort Atkinson High School South High Street Singers receive a standing ovation after delivering their exhibition performance.
Seated in the back of the gym, adjudicators make decisions in between show choir performances. A panel of nine distinguished show choir competition adjudicators included: Bob Demaree, Mike Esser, Shanna Luckett, Peggy Morgan Strimple, Shane Rhoades, Lynne Rothrock, Ben Schrank, Justin Steger, and Heath Weber.
Members of a Mundelein High School Choir called “Sound” perform in the competition.
Members of the choir called “Sound” move across the stage. The choir placed as the third runner up in the championship round.
An audience member dances in the bleachers between show choir performances.
Another member of the audience dances.
Audience members, comprised of students, performers, and their guests, show their enthusiasm between show choir performances.
Audience members show their support of the Fort Atkinson “Fort Showcase” event.
Trophies dazzle Fort Showcase participants and guests from a table in the Fort Atkinson High School commons.
Solo Competition Adjudicator Laura Cable, at left, shares some tips and advice with a soloist. While the show choir completion was underway in the gym, a second competition for soloists was underway in the high school auditorium. Cable, according to the event’s printed program, is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her bio notes worldwide performances and acclaim, and she has also performed at Fort Atkinson’s own Fireside Theatre where she has appeared in such productions as “Holiday Inn,” “Cinderella,” “My Fair Lady,” and “The Little Mermaid.”
Heading toward the gym for their exhibition performance, members of the Fort Atkinson High School South High Street Singers are cheered by fans as they move through the high school commons.
Members of the South High Street Singers stretch in the warmup room before their performance.
More stretching.
Fort Atkinson High School music teacher and show choir director Kiah Snow, at center, gives final instructions before the South High Street Singers leave the warmup room
Fort Atkinson band students gather in the warmup room.
Choreographer Ben Schrank, standing, holds a clinic offering tips and advice to competing choirs designed to help them enhance their performances should they advance to the championship round. Competing choirs each received 25 minutes of clinic time with the choreographer, according to Fort Atkinson High School Theater Managing Director John Collins.
Fort Atkinson High School Theater Managing Director John Collins, at left, and invitational host and master of ceremonies Aaron Athas confer behind the scenes between performances. Athas who, according to the invitational program, once performed as part of Fort High’s South High Street Singers, serves as an instructional technology specialist and technical theatre coordinator in Sartell, Minn. He has been a member of multiple semi-professional choruses in northern Wisconsin and central Minnesota.
School District of Fort Atkinson Superintendent Rob Abbott greets audience members and show choir invitational participants during a short ceremony held after the preliminary round. During the ceremony, each group received a certificate of participation, and awards were given to the outstanding male and female soloist within a group, outstanding male and female solo/duet, outstanding backup combo, and outstanding crew. Additionally, the top six open class show choirs to compete in the evening’s championship round were announced. After the ceremony, the championship round was held.
Kim McDarison photos.