OnStage! Clinic Prepares Youths (videos to enjoy)

It took 75 pizzas and all of Eureka High School's 27 OnStage! members to train approximately 300 area youths who came from throughout the Eureka and Wildwood area and beyond, during their Martin Luther King Jr. holiday off from school, to attend the annual OnStage! performance clinic. 

OnStage! is a group of both genders of students who combine choral signing with dance, often to tell a specific story or idea.  The group is directed by the school's music teacher, Donna Baker. She said this year attracted an unusually large number of participants.

OnStage! members conduct this annual clinic as a fundraiser and to model show choir talents for up-and-coming performers.  Attendees from kindergarten through eighth grade receive grade-level instruction, a clinic T-shirt, snacks and evening meal.  The cost per participant was $30.

The clinic culminates with an actual show that evening for family members and friends of the participants.

Show choir originated in the United States during the mid-1960s.  Two groups of touring performers, Up with People and The Young Americans, traveled throughout the country in the 1960s, performing what most people now refer to as the show choir concept.  After those performances, many other students and directors started similar groups at their high schools. 

OnStage! is similar to the interests of student actors on the currently popular television series Glee, which was launched in 2009.