Junior SING! Wins in Upset
The juniors’ plot involved a romantic drama in Las Vegas. Photo Credit: Justin Chow
By AYAH HASSAN and TRACY HA
“And the winner is,” Midwood Mayor Tanisa Rahman ’20 began. Everyone was on the edge of their seats. SoFresh and the juniors had put on a great show February 8, but the seniors had won it every year for over a decade.
“JUNIOR SING!” The crowd went wild. All three groups were shocked, unable to believe that the upset had happened.
SING! is a musical production directed and produced by high school students. Each grade has to come up with a script, a few dances, and a few songs to sing on the day of the show. They are then judged based upon a rubric provided to them in the beginning. SING! started in 1947 in our very own Midwood space with a concept from music teacher Bella Tills.
Junior SING! Commissioners Naimah Rahman and Asalya Fakhridinova are still in shock.
“I’m not going to lie, I thought I died,” said Rahman. “There is a video of me going around where you can see pure shock on my face. Everything was happening so fast, and for ten minutes, people were hugging me, lifting me, cheering, and all I could say was ‘we won.’”
“Everyone did an incredible job,” Rahman continued. “Two days ago, we were a wreck. The cast and crew never cease to amaze me.”
Fakhridinova felt shocked, but also relieved.
“A huge weight was lifted off my chest,” she said. “Two months ago, Naimah and I had huge pressure thrown at us, like breaking the streak, ‘are you guys going to be able to make history,’ etc, and our group was under so much stress.” But nevertheless, “they put in 110% of their best work and we made it worth all our time,” she said.
In the subcategories, Junior SING! won all three dance awards, with their Revolution X crew and leader Crystal Wu ’21 winning best dance, best dancer, and overall best dance performance.
“I was shocked,” said Wu. “We juniors didn’t really care about the win, it was just the hard work that we did that paid off in the end, and that’s all that mattered. But overall, we were just really thrilled and surprised and overwhelmed.”
“The crowd made the dance ten times more amazing,” she added. “To be on stage and to perform was just the experience of lifetime.”
The juniors also won best writing and Braden Richardson ’21 won best actor.
The seniors didn’t leave empty-handed, taking best art, best band, best song choices and best singing, with Pheona Angoy ’20 winning best singer. SoFresh was awarded best banner.
The show began with SoFresh performing “Murder at Mardi Gras,” a mystery that follows a high school student who was murdered on a school trip. He comes back as a ghost to figure out who killed him and has assistance from the other students.
“For a long time, SoFresh SING! has not won, but that’s fine,” said Hang Chen ’22, who played Detective Mendelle. “Some said that we put on a SoFresh show that was better than shows in the past. This just shows how we will be competing when we are in our junior year.”
Next up, the juniors performed a romantic drama, “Love in Las Vegas,” where a couple goes through many challenges to see if they are truly compatible and if true love prevails.
Tamari Kvaratskhelia ’21, who came to cheer on friends, said, “It was interesting how the plot was about a gay marriage. This showed how widespread such events are and gave the presentation a modern vibe. The dances, such as the one in Vegas, also gave the play a modern feel and developed the storyline.”
Senior SING! featured a superhero performance depicting a young boy who hopes to fight against villains and his own inner demons in “The Last Light.”
Junior SING! chorus member Matthew Charles ’21 said, “I loved their [the seniors’] fight scenes. Also the scene where Ethan died and Ezra held him on the floor, and the scenes where Pheona sang. And I loved their alma mater at the end.”
Even though they did not win, the seniors were still happy for their schoolmates.
Milena Abramova ’20, who was in art and ballroom dancing, said, “I’m happy for the juniors, but it was heartbreaking to work so hard for four years and not have a victory at the end of it all. We’ve been waiting for that moment since freshman year, but we never got it, so it’s a bit upsetting.”
Band leader Claire McErlaine ’20, whose team won best band, said, “Regardless of who won, everyone still had a great time creating the show, and I was so proud of not only myself and my other leaders, but every single person in Senior SING! band for working so hard on the songs. Winning best band was a huge honor for us all.”
All in all, “winning doesn’t always matter,” McErlaine added. “It would’ve been nice to win, but I think we were all super-proud of the effort we put in. We won in our hearts.”
Members of Junior SING! shared heartfelt messages with their fellow Senior SING! and SoFresh members.
“To the seniors and SoFresh, you did amazing on your performances, and you all worked very hard,” said Sarah Tse ’21, who played Mrs. Sulane. “Congratulations on the awards that you’ve won. To SoFresh, let this junior victory be something for you to be optimistic about, in that the seniors aren’t always going to win, and there could be a SoFresh win next year, or another junior victory.”
Tse also said, “To the seniors, I know it sucks that you didn’t win, but it doesn’t stop the fact that you all worked very hard. I will definitely miss your awesome performances next year.”
Charles added to the seniors: “Don’t think of it as a loss. You had an amazing, funny, entertaining show, and I loved it. You still won at heart. It was a great final show!”
All in all, cast and crew members said that SING! was a great experience and a way to bring friends closer together.
“It’s not about winning or losing, it’s about what comes out of it,” said Fakhridinova. “We made a huge family.”
The juniors’ victory ended the seniors’ decade-long run. Photo Credit: Darlene Llangari