Behind the Curtain: History of Campo’s Spring Musical

Each spring, the Campolindo Musical Theatre Department puts on a Broadway-style show in the Campolindo Performing Arts Center (CPAC). It features student performers from both the choral and orchestral departments, as well as a star-studded tech and directing team. The program has received numerous accolades, including praise for director Dave Pinkham and producer and music director Mark Roberts. But how did this show come to be the extravagant exhibition it is today?

“I know that Campo has been doing an annual musical ever since the school opened in 1962,” described Pinkham. “Since well back into the ‘80s, the annual spring musical has been a robust tradition here.” In that time, choral director Lindley Hall produced an annual spring musical included in the curricula of the choir. The shows were emblematic of the traditional Broadway-style, such as Oklahoma, Hello Dolly, and The Music Man.

After Hall’s retirement, Gene Peterson replaced him as the Director of Choral Activities and effectively became the head of the Spring Musical despite knowing little about theater. Recognizing the show’s importance, he recruited Pinkham to find local directors and work backstage. In 2002, when current choir director Mark Roberts was a student, Pinkham was given the opportunity to lead staging and character coaching. After some arm-twisting, Peterson convinced Pinkham to become the director for the 2003 season. Deciding on the show Bye Bye Birdie and scheduling a 4-show weekend, all the dominos were set for a successful performance — except for the director.

“This felt like a tremendous amount of responsibility,” Pinkham recalled. “I remember many long nights at home working on the staging, figuring out the rehearsal schedule, and worrying about whether we would have enough time to make it all work. Between us, we were making it up as we went along.” Despite his worries, the show was successful and Pinkham agreed to direct in 2004, but with 1 massive change.

This change was the construction of the CPAC. Roberts said the addition of the CPAC has been a very positive change for the musical. The ability of what they can do in the theater technically and with larger capacity has increased because of the CPAC space. Originally, the plays took place in the Multiuse Room.

“Before I came in, they did The Wizard of Oz and hired a professional flying company from New York in order to have the actors rigged in the CPAC. The theater affords the ability to do things technically, musically, and as a spectacle on a grander scale,” said Roberts. For the grand opening of the new theater, Pinkham decided to produce the newly available Les Miserables for the 2004 season. With a deep talent pool and new theater, Peterson and Pinkham spared no expense. The duo installed a revolve on stage, hired a lighting designer, rented additional microphones, and filled out the pit orchestra with some professionals.

After receiving a standing ovation at the end of Act 1 and selling out every single performance that year, the Campolindo Musical Theatre program entered a new era of spectacle and expertise. Since then, the program has tackled multiple challenging shows, including Titanic, Legally Blonde, Beauty and the Beast, and The Phantom of the Opera.

The structure of the musical and who was allowed to partake in it has changed dramatically over the years. Participation was first limited only to Concert Choir, which had to halt actually being a choir during the 2nd semester to rehearse for the musical. Roberts said starting his sophomore year at Campolindo, “[his] director made the change to make the musical extracurricular and open to anyone in the choral program.”

Concert Choir students participated in the musical as part of the curriculum. “All students in the upper-level choirs were automatically in the show and were required to rehearse and perform. There were no freshmen and only a few sophomores in the shows, and they were single cast, for the most part,” said Pinkham. “When I started directing, it was important to me that the experience be available to all Choral students, regardless of class or age. Moving it to an optional after-school program allowed for a deepening of the Choral curriculum, opened the show to more students, and allowed those who had other interests to opt-out, leaving us [with] more engaged and enthusiastic casts to work with.”

The audition process has also changed over the years. Campolindo began multiple casting in 2004, which led to more opportunities for more students. “I’m proud that we moved away from the traditional ‘casting by popularity’ and ‘casting by seniority’ model that seems prevalent in so many schools,” said Pinkham. “In recent years we’ve had freshmen in leading roles in several of our shows. This makes the audition process more relevant and true to life when we’re able to cast a show to put the best product in front of our audiences.”

The audition process is something Pinkham loves. “It is exciting to see new talent emerge from the freshman class and even more so, to see students I’ve known mature into ‘seasoned’ performers. There are always surprises. The blossoming of teenagers into performers is a magical thing to experience…sometimes it’s instant, and other times it’s 4 years of slow-motion. However it happens, I always marvel when it does” said Pinkham.

1 thing that has remained constant throughout the long history of Campolindo’s musical is the stage performance being a show stopper. With challenging productions, lyrics, and choreography, year after year the musical remains a community favorite. The talented and hard-working cast brings something new to the musical every year.

Campo alum and Broadway actress Erika Henningsen, who starred as Cady Heron in the Broadway musical Mean Girls, participated in Campo Choir all 4 years of high school, and was in the musical all semesters she could be. Performing as Belle in the 2009 Campo production of Beauty and the Beast, Henningsen said in an interview for The Claw, “The spring musicals were truly a defining moment of my high school experience, but less because of the chance to perform and more due to the support and encouragement of the community. I so admire how our school upholds the arts and encourages its importance in students’ lives.”

Pinkham is hopeful that despite the challenges with COVID-19, the 2022 Spring Musical of Cinderella will be a packed house. “I’m excited about Cinderella – and even more so now that we’ve had a rehearsal and I’m able to get a very small sense of what a couple of our leads will bring to the stage. I hope that we’ll be able to do it justice and that we can overcome the obstacles that keep coming our way, [such as] masks, illness, and so on. We will soldier on as best we can and I fully expect to be in front of packed houses in March,” said Pinkham. Roberts, too, expressed his excitement about a returning live audience after a 2-year break due to COVID-19: “I’m really eager to have an audience again, particularly younger kids, being reminded what the Campo Choir and Musical programs are and the level at which we operate…My biggest goal is to maintain a high level of interest in the program and performances from the community.”

Pinkham concluded, “There is nothing I love more than being in CPAC collaborating with a bunch of students and other talented people on creating art. It just doesn’t get any better than that.”