Phoenix High Hits a Winning Note

I've spent the past two weeks sitting in on rehearsals for Oklahoma! at Phoenix High School, so I was very aware that there were some outstanding voices in the music program, but I didn't know they were this good!

Shown here in a Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli photo, Durene Putney directs the choir - the smallest to compete at the 3A level in the state, and as of this past weekend, also the BEST! Putney has been at Phoenix for about a decade (sorry, I don't exactly know) - she's the only performing arts staff who hasn't been there since my STUDENT days, though that will change next year with Mike Wraight and Bill Horton both retiring.

Many of the voices involved in this win are also on stage this weekend and next, as Oklahoma! opens tonight at the Rose Street Theater. Jared Thigpin - who was the fourth place tenor in the state-wide soloist contests the weekend before the ensemble contest - starts the show off, as Curly, praising the "...beautiful morning..." as he arrives at Aunt Eller's (Claire Rodgers, also in the choir) farm.

So Huzzah! to the choir... and Good Show!to the Thespians... I will be in the house on Saturday evening. I hope a few of my readers will take the show in, as well!