Fine arts students at Cumberland County High School are taking full control of a collaborative performance Thursday to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary through music, poetry, and historical documents.
Cumberland County High School Theater Teacher Angela Robbins helped guide the creation of “America at 250: Honoring the Past, Shaping the Future.” The 45-minute production features students handling all aspects of the show, from writing the script to managing the stage lights and performing the choreography.
“We’re looking at American achievement and we’re also acknowledging that America’s history is complicated and our future is complicated and we wanted to lean into the hope for the new generations,” Robbins said.
Robbins said the performance weaves together historical documents and American statements with a central focus on the basic tenets of the Declaration of Independence. The show includes a mix of pop music, contemplative renditions of the national anthem, and poetry such as the New Colossus from the Statue of Liberty.
“And there’s no reason for adults to get into the mess into all of that mess if the students are so creative themselves,” Robbins said. “Why do we need to be meddling in their affairs?”
Robbins said combining the band, choir, and theater departments allows the students to enhance the storytelling through multiple modalities like interpretive movement and lighting. The cast and crew were selected from existing fine arts classes as a collaborative project.
“Everything is a group project,” Robbins said. “As much as some of us may not have liked having to do group projects in school, life is a group project. Nobody exists as as an island. And so getting to create together with other groups is is necessary, it’s a privilege, but it’s also necessary.”
Robbins said the idea for the event originated when Mark Pfaffenroth from the military museum in Crossville asked the fine arts teachers to create a program. The request was inspired by a Veterans Day production the high school has hosted for approximately a decade.
“I hope that they are proud of our country,” Robbins said. “I hope that they are that they can acknowledge the complexity of our history but also have hope for our future along with our students.”
The America at 250 performance takes place on March 26 at 2:00 PM, and the theater department will immediately go into production for Seussical following the event.