Rehearsals filled with student choreographing, song-perfecting, skit writing, and show run-throughs are all part of the school’s annual lead up to Pop Show,.

“I think this year’s theme, ‘Madness’, is really fun,” assistant choir director Christopher Mason said. “It’s based on the song by Muse, and all of the other songs have things to do with that theme of craziness. Some are dark and brooding, and some of them are like Crazy in Love, about being wild and crazy in life. I think there’s something for everyone; there are some older style songs and current songs that are on the radio right now.”

New songs and performances will take center stage alongside beloved traditions of the past.

“Every year we sing the ‘Lonesome Road, and the choir alumni get to come up and sing with us,” junior Taylor Todd said. “It’s a really sad occasion, because you remember the seniors who have gone before, and this year’s seniors who are graduating, but it’s nice to have something that is the same every year.”

Seniors have their own tradition to celebrate their last Pop Show.

“The seniors have a tradition of coming up with their own thing, and it’s usually very silly,” choir director Bethany Stuard said. “In the past it’s been things like a mashup of famous YouTube videos, or singing pop songs in opera voices. Last year they composed a riff-off like in the movie Pitch Perfect. This year the seniors have created something called out of control nostalgia, which is a mashup of old TV shows.”

Students in all grades have been putting in long hours preparing strenuously for the upcoming show.

“Boys have rehearsals every Wednesday morning, and girls have rehearsal every Friday morning,” senior Courtney DuVal said. “Plus pop groups have rehearsals every Tuesday morning as usual, so we put in a lot of work outside of school, and because this is show week we have rehearsal after school Tuesday, dress rehearsal Wednesday, and the show Thursday and Friday.”

Thursday and Friday’s performance will showcase the multi-dimensional talents of those in choir.

“Several of our soloists are accompanying themselves on their instruments,” Stuard said. “I always think that’s really cool to show off. Most of the songs are choreographed by students. They watch videos, they get ideas, they meet with me and I’ll say “try this”. There’s a lot of behind the scenes work. They also come up with costuming or arranging mashups of different songs so they get to put their creativity into the show in a lot of ways, so not only does it show off what we can teach, but what they can do.”

Expectations are high for choir’s performance.

“I think that they’ve worked so hard so I really expect that every song is going to be really clean and really beautiful and really energetic,” Stuard said. “These kids are so much fun, so when they perform it’s really entertaining, and I think that the kids will sing beautifully. There are some funny and silly moments, as well as some beautiful ones.”