Band and drama students perform 'Little Shop of Horrors'

Photo courtesy of Alfonso Tenrerio

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Saint Joseph Band performs the music for "Little Shop of Horrors." The teamed with the drama department to put on the musical and were asked to extend their performance an extra week.

OGDEN — "We performed the musical ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ for two weeks in April," said Alfonso Tenrerio, Saint Joseph Catholic High School music director. "This is the first year the band was incorporated with the drama department. It went so well we had people asking us if we could extend it another week. It was wonderful.

"We also held our Spring concert in May, and performed rock music, jazz, and a lot of solos," said Tenrerio. "This year I put the band and the choir together and had soloists sing as well. This made it quite exciting.

"One of the toughest things with our school scheduling is that we have a lot of talent in the choir and band, but they cannot take the classes because they have to take the other academic classes," said Tenrerio.

Tenrerio said for example there are students in the choir who play instruments so they make up their own little band.

"This year there are about 17 members in the choir. So when you are talking about a school that has only 198 students total, that is a lot of students," said Tenrerio. "In the drama department there were a lot of students involved in the musical. The students are also involved in many other activities in the school.

"But every night the Black Box Theater was packed to see ‘Little Shop of Horrors,’" said Tenrerio. "We had to add seats. We had not only parents and family members come to see the musical, but also people from the community came to see the musical.

"One of the wonderful things we have is the band program at Saint Joseph Elementary School," said Tenrerio. "A lot of the students start playing instruments at the elementary school and continue in the program at the high school. I teach guitar and trumpet at the elementary school."

Tenrerio said there is definitely an urge for students to want to learn to play the guitar, bass guitar, electric instruments, drums, as well as the saxophone, so he helps to accommodate them. That makes his curriculum different than the public school band curriculum, which includes more brass instruments. The students pick up the music fairly easily and have a good time playing.

"We also participated in the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in Salt Lake City this year," said Tenrerio. "We have been participating in the parade for the past 10 years. We had a good crowd and sang songs from the band ‘Rush,’ which is a band all the kids like. We also sang other ‘pop’ songs. We made a float, and had a good time doing that.

"All of these things bring the community together which creates a bond among the students," said Tenrerio. "This has been wonderful. I have been teaching band for so long, but this year was really special watching the kids in music and drama become friends. They realized they had more in common than they thought. That was beautiful to see. Crowning it with a cast party at the end was really great.

"I actually saw a lot of leadership among the students develop during the musical," said Tenrerio. "A lot of the students took charge of the sound system, became stage managers, and it was a nice way to support our school."