By Julie Slama | [email protected]

More than 75 Monte Vista Elementary students are taking part in Monte Vista’s holiday musical, “North Pole Musical.” 

The 35-minute show, directed and choreographed by fourth-grade teacher Dionne Tarpenning with music specialist Amanda Maloy, will be at 3:30 p.m., Friday, Dec. 9 in the school gymnasium, 11121 S. 2700 West. Admission is free.

“We were excited to find out that so many fourth, fifth and sixth grade students are enthusiastic about this idea of a musical, but we didn't know that it was going to be overwhelmingly so,” Tarpenning said. “It’s been really good and we’re finding ways for all of them to shine in one way or another.”

Tarpenning said that many of the students are cast as reindeer, snowmen, elves and toys from the Nutcracker Suite and will create their own costumes to match their roles.

“Each of the groups has their own dance and their own song; there are full cast numbers where everybody performs,” she said.

The storyline of the musical is about auditions that are underway for the 400 anniversary of “North Pole Musical,” with each group performing, trying to convince Santa that he should include them in the show, Tarpenning said.

“In the end, Santa says, ‘I feel like we've gotten away from the real meaning of Christmas and what it's really supposed to be all about.’ That’s when there is a character who nobody's ever heard of before — her name is Crystal Snowflake — and she says they need to think about what the heart of Christmas is, and that song talks about people caring about each other, not all of the commercialism. This is a story that has a good meaning. It's about looking for the good in other people and looking for ways to reach out and care for other people. We're using the story of Santa Claus and what is typically known as the American Christmas, as the vehicle for the message: to show love and caring for other people.”

The idea for the first schoolwide musical, Tarpenning said, originated prior to COVID-19, but was delayed because of the health and safety issues with the pandemic.

She said that there are multiple reasons why they wanted to put on the musical.

“It is so good for kids to have a performing experience where they can work collaboratively with other kids, where they can learn to memorize lines and dance moves. It's good for their brain,” Tarpenning said. “It's good for their social interactions, good for their self-esteem when they perform. They feel so good about themselves. I want the kids to be able to have that kind of experience and they learn that they can do things that are hard, and it can be awesome. They also learn that working together with other people is really fun.”

Tarpenning said that the musical is also uniting the student body of the school, helping to bridge some of the social gaps between the neighborhood students and those who study in the dual language immersion program at the school.

“Sometimes, there is a division of the kids in the families where you have the dual language kids or you have the neighborhood kids, but this brings it together and we have a sense of community. This crosses all those barriers, there's no us and them, it's everybody coming together, working collaboratively,” she said.

Musical auditions were held in early September.

“They're all able to be in the show, but we wanted to know who really is great at dancing, who really is great at singing, who's really good at projecting and able to memorize their lines quickly,” Tarpenning said about the first schoolwide musical she has directed.

Since then, the cast has rehearsed an hour twice per week.

“The very first day of rehearsal, I was blown away by the talent. I had no idea that there were kids out there who could say lines so well and project and have them memorized even before we even had done anything. Kids, at auditions, had the ability to sing out loudly and clearly — and they sounded so great,” Tarpenning said. “It has been an amazing experience.”