By By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER
Lifestyles & Features Editor
PINETOWN — Many of Northside High School’s most-talented students will be showcased this weekend during the school’s annual Battle for the Arts event.
The show is set for Saturday, beginning at 7 p.m., in the NHS auditorium. Admission is $5 a person.
“The money we raise with this, and this is our fifth year, goes into this auditorium,” said Jennifer Woolard, the show’s director. “We’re trying to get enough money to fix the sound in here.”
Students appearing on stage have to work hard and push their voices to be heard in the back of the auditorium, according to Woolard.
“The sound gets lost in the stage ceiling and doesn’t come out into the auditorium,” she said. “We really want to get that money built up to get some acoustical remedy in here. This auditorium is not a good design for sound.”
Funds have gradually been building up over the past few years, and Woolard said she’s hopeful there will be enough on hand after Saturday’s show to begin work on the sound project.
Meanwhile, Northside students have been hard at work perfecting their acts for the show. Each grade level is responsible for writing a script, assembling a cast and painting scenery. Students serve as technicians and stagehands, too.
Up for grabs are bragging rights among the students. Each class wants to show the community that they put on the best show.
“We rock. The only thing we’re worried about are the dances,” said junior Kelly Speece, a writer and director of her class skit. “We have a great script.”
To preserve the element of surprise, Speece didn’t want to divulge too many details about the juniors’ production, but she did reveal they are doing a murder mystery with a twist.
“It’s kind of a spoof on Austin Powers. Our title is ‘A Mysterious Murder on Stage 4,’” she said.
Speece said her class has an impressive Battle for the Arts track record, so she expects her cast will do well this weekend.
“We were second behind the class of 2009 last year, so we’ve already beaten this year’s seniors,” she said. “And we were third our freshman year.”
But senior Katie Bowen vows her class will give the juniors a run for their money.
“Last year, we had a really good show, and since we’re seniors we have a lot of experience,” she said. “I think we’ll win if we pull it all together. We got third place last year, but a lot of people said we should have won.”
The title of the seniors’ skit is “Flight 2010.”
“We’re going on a senior trip and … you’ll just have to see what happens,” Bowen said with a smile.
The students and their skits will be judged by a panel from East Carolina University’s theater department, Woolard said. Storyline, costumes, props, singing and dancing ability, scenery and acting are all considered in determining a winner.
A little more than 100 Northside students are involved in this year’s production, Woolard added.
“The cast does it all. They paint the scenery and pull the curtain, and students run sound,” she said. “They work together on this.”