The Petal High School Show Choir’s Dinner Theater show may look a little different this year in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the group – which is made up of the all-girl Innovations and the girl-and-boy Soundsations – is looking to showcase its competition skills at the upcoming Dinner Theater.
Dinner Theater will be held at the Petal Performing Arts Center, adjacent to Petal High School, and will consist of three events: a show at 7 p.m. Jan. 29, a matinee at 3 p.m. Jan. 30, and a final show at 7 p.m. Jan. 30. Because of the pandemic, the performing arts center’s capacity is limited to 250 attendees, and the usual dinner will not be served.
“With COVID and everything we’re dealing with this year, the students are just really excited about being able to get on stage and perform,” said Shanna Luckett, director of choirs at the high school. “We just had a lot taken away from us at the end of the year last year, so we’ve just kind of been anxious, just waiting to see if we were going to be able to perform.
“It’s getting down to it, and they’re real excited to know that we are going to be able to perform and have a little bit of a normal competition season. It’s not going to be like it was last year, (because of) new standards and policies and precautions, but we’re excited to be able to showcase what we’ve worked on.”
The Innovations will perform a flight-oriented routine, with songs such as “Freebird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and “Bird Set Free” by Sia. The Soundsations will do a sort of “greatest hits” selection from over the years, including “Smooth Criminal” by Michael Jackson and “Roll With the Changes” by REO Speedwagon.
“We don’t have ‘real’ themes, so to speak, like we’ve done in the past,” Luckett said. “We don’t have a lot of backdrops and we don’t have any props, so it’s back to the roots of just singing and dancing, like when showchoir was originally founded. We’re just kind of seeing if we can get the full 250 (attendance) for all three shows.”
Tickets for Dinner Theater are $5 each. Ticket information can be found by calling (601) 583-3538 or by emailing shanna.luckett@petalschools.com.
“We’re actually pre-selling tickets right now for the parents, so I don’t even know for sure that there would be any tickets available at the door,” Luckett said. “But if someone really wanted to see the show, they could contact me and I could see what I had available.
“We would normally use this as a fundraiser to help raise money for travel for our trips. But this year, we’re just looking to make a little bit of money; we’re not fundraising for anything in particular. We’re just excited to get back on stage and perform.”
