Northside High drama students staging two productions in January

The Northside High School drama department has two big productions planned within a week of each other, and both are full of longtime Northside High School traditions.

The first is a two-night performance of "School House Rock" at 7 p.m. Jan. 21 and 22. Tickets are $5 general admission.

"It is your favorite educational Saturday morning cartoons brought to life," Brian Barnett, drama director at Northside High School, said. "School House Rock" is being performed by Richard Frazier's ninth-grade performing arts class.

Along with the evening performances, elementary schools will be bringing students to Northside High School during the day for performances of "School House Rock."

"We have been doing that a long time, inviting elementary students over for a performance of our spring musical or one act or an educational type program like this. It is a way to get them interested in theater and learning and they have fun doing it," Barnett said.

On Jan. 31, Northside High School will present "Hairspray," its fall one-act award-winning show. "Hairspray" will be performed at 3 p.m., and the price of entry is five canned goods. Northside has been doing a canned-goods performance for years to help fill the food bank at All Saints' Episcopal Church. Last year's performance brought in 3,000 pounds of canned goods.

According to organizers, if someone comes to the show and doesn't have any canned goods to donate, they can pay $5 per person.

"It is our last performance of 'Hairspray' here before we go to the Thespian Conference the first week of February. Bringing in canned good is a longtime Northside tradition. It has just always seemed like a natural fit, the food bank, because it is not something that just benefits Northside but the community as a whole. Then we will be performing at Thespian Conference, which is also a longtime Northside tradition," Barnett said.

Northside will perform "Hairspray" at the RiverCenter in Columbus, doing two shows for about 4,500 people.

"We have performed at Thespian Conference every year since I was in high school here," Barnett said. "It is a tradition that we have continued through the years, and it is always quite an honor to perform there."

Both "School House Rock" and "Hairspray" will be performed in Northside High School's Ray Horne Theater.

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 10:20 AM.