Dissatisfied with the theatre opportunities which presented themselves, last August, a friend and I set out to create our own opportunity. We began work on our own production—an evening of musical theatre performances put on entirely by high school students from the local area. The show would feature music from shows that wouldn’t normally be performed in our community due to their relative obscurity. On October 22 and 23, 2010, our goal was realized the first ever performance of the Winona Cabaret Ensemble. The event was the culmination of many hours of hard work and stressful planning, although it finally felt as though we had reached that peak of the mountain and nothing could bring us down.

However, soon after the insanity of rehearsals ceased and “normal” life resumed, many members of the group would come up to either me or my friend and express how much they missed being part of cabaret and being around the other members. It seemed that another performance was on the horizon.

When we started again this April, with some new faces, it was hard to pick up where we left off: our previous performance space was too small; our rehearsals had been scheduled sporadically; some members didn’t even pick out their selection until the week of the performance. We were determined to make take two even better.

I write this today with five mere days before the hours of hard work are going to be displayed for our friends, family and hopefully a good number of community members. This time around, our group of 13 high school students has worked especially diligently to bring the best performance we possibly can. Also, our efforts will be raising funds for Saint Mary’s University Nairobi Campus, a university in Africa that educates native teachers who then return to their villages and allow the cycle of education to continue.

Our performances are Friday and Saturday May 27 and 28, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. The performances will be held on Saint Mary’s Campus in the Common Room on the third floor of St. Mary’s Hall. All community members are invited to attend. A free will offering will be taken for the Nairobi Campus. More detailed information can be found on the events calendar here on Winona360! I would like to thank all the families and friends of the cabaret members as well as Saint Mary’s University Volunteer Committee.