Jal High Theatre students to perform Back to the 80s musical School
By John Earp
Jal School District will be hosting its first musical next week, February 6th, 7th, and 8th, at 7:00 p.m. This will be the first musical put on by Jal Schools that anyone can recall. Geoffrey Hess is the Theatre teacher, having come to Jal after spending several years doing the same thing at Tatum Schools. The musical is entitled, “Back to the 80s,” and features song and dance performances of popular songs from the 1980s. When asked what led him to choose this particular musical, Hess said, “I love the music, number one, I love the music. I love old new wave music from the 80s. I think it’s fun. Electronic music is fun. And the beat is good, but the costumes are great, and it’s for a first show, for the first one that’s been done here in a couple of decades, uh it’s minimal. There’s a minimal amount of props, sets that we had to procure in order to pull it off. We still had to have some stuff, and I mean, the school and the district’s been great getting us 80s clothes. There’s going to be loud shirts, there’s going be Miami Vice stuff, we got all of that.”
Hess originally hails from Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his mother was a police officer and he developed into a true blue Michigan Wolverines fan. This will be his 31st show to put on since he started doing Theatre. Besides doing a couple of shows in high school, Hess says he really had no theatre teaching background when he started, and just has learned it on the way. He has taught numerous subjects in public schools over the years, including English, New Mexico History, United States History, K through 6th Physical Education, as well as spent time as a tour guide in Lincoln, New Mexico.
Hess says a Greyhound Bus is what brought him to New Mexico; specifically, Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, where he met his wife, whom he was married to for 36 years. He worked at Tatum Schools for 10 years before coming to Jal this school year. In Tatum, he worked with Buddy Little, who at the time was superintendent of schools before coming to work at Jal High School.
Hess says what he loves most about Jal is the newness, the support from the administration and the parents, the facilities, and “just the openness to say, ‘Hey man, you know, we know you can do it. Just do it. Do what you can do.” He looks forward to bringing the community something they have not seen before with the upcoming musical.
He says, “I mean, most of these kids have never been in this theater, but usually just for the Veterans Day program. You know, not really a full thing like this. Like I said, I don’t think there’s been a full blown type of show in here for 20 years, but I don’t know that for a fact, but I mean that’s what I’ve been led to believe.
Hess also has played trumpet with the Southwest Symphony at University of the Southwest for 25 years, but perhaps jokingly, says he’s a terrible trumpet player. In Tatum, Hess says, “When I did the Wizard of Oz, I used the entire elementary school as munchkins.
When asked what is it about being involved in this particular aspect of education that he loves the most, Hess says, “Just to be creative. It just lets me get out of, you know, page 27, you know, going through the standards, benchmarks, and this is me, just free flowing with what I do, because that’s all I do. I can remember every show I’ve ever done, before we ever do anything, I know where it’s going to start, and I know how it’s going to end. I know everything I have to do in the middle and it’s just a matter of putting it all together, and I see it. I can see it from start to finish. It’s a visual in my head every day that I know where we’re going and how we’re going to put it together, but it’s just ever changing, it’s ever evolving. The kids are different. Everybody is unique.”
Hess says having a theatre program gives the kids who aren’t athletes a place, something to get involved in and to belong.
He also says, “We have to push to exceed and excel and get there every single time. It’s got to be great out of the chute or no one’s going to pay any attention. It’s got to be great, and it’s a lot of pressure. It’s a tremendous amount of pressure to try and pull this off, sure, with kids that have never been on stage.
Mrs. Miki Savoie is assisting with the production as an advisor. Hess says, “She’s great,” even though she is an Ohioan.
He says, “She is an advisor, you know, just if she sees things, she points it out to me and says, you know, hey, you know, about that. So she’s yeah, she’s great. And plus, she knows everybody, you know, she’s been around here forever.”
Hess says the next musical which is planned for this coming May will be the classic 70s movie/musical, “Grease.”