OCSA Virtual Full-Length High School Musical To Premiere May 14

Orange County School of the Arts has announced an amazing full-length virtual musical theater production premiering on our YouTube channel next week.

As you know, all live performances at OCSA (and across the nation) have been canceled due to COVID-19. That announcement came after months of planning and three weeks into the intensive rehearsals for our spring musical at OCSA. The cast, creatives and crew were gutted at the news.

Yet together, the team at OCSA and the professional Now. Here. This. authors Hunter Bell, Susan Blackwell and Jeff Bowen, have reimagined what a spring musical might look like in this new world.

With students fully engaged in the creation process, Now. Here. This. was rehearsed over Zoom meetings, shot over six weeks entirely in quarantine using iPhones and home computers, and presented start-to-finish as a digital project. Performed by and incorporating more than 30 Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA) students from the musical theatre, acting, production & design and visual arts conservatories, Now. Here. This. will also be the final high school performance for 11 graduating seniors.

This is the one full-length high school musical this season where the curtain will still rise!

Now. Here. This. will air exclusively on OCSA's YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/weareocsa. The premiere begins at 6 p.m. PST on May 14, 2020, and the full presentation can be viewed anytime through Sunday, May 17, 2020. Please also see the attached fact sheet and flyer embedded below.

Now. Here. This. is a musical that explores what goes down in the space between the past and the future, and why living in the present is life's greatest gift. Timely lessons for today, to say the least. Told over 20 modules (mini-musical scenes), the show delves into life's big questions with inimitable humor and humanity. Originally written for four actors, this production has been adapted for flexible casting for any number of performers, from four to 400. This is also a flexible and gender-neutral adaptation that allows any performer to be cast in nearly any role, regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation.