Choir students at Ola High School are once again preparing to take local audiences on a musical journey fit for the Big Apple.

The choir will present Ola Over Broadway January 13-14, 2023. The production will be held at the Fairview Performing Arts Center, 544 Fairview Road in Stockbridge, at 7 p.m.

Tickets for the production are $10 each.

Approximately 150 choir students and 15 theater students will perform during the annual event, says Choir Director Mindy Forehand.

Ola Over Broadway, says Forehand, is a musical revue of 16 different shows put on by the choral department.

“Most of the music, we have not performed,” she says. “I would say three of the 16 are repeats, and a few are from the virtual [performance]. We wanted to perform them live because we loved them so much.

“Every year is different,” continues Forehand. “It’s a completely different set of kids, so it’s a new energy every year. My goal is to showcase classics that the community will really like. This year we’re doing Motown and Grease. The other goal is to introduce new musicals to the community that, hopefully, they will fall in love with.”

Forehand adds that Ola Over Broadway has enjoyed success with local audiences over the years. She says the concert is an important event for the choir, the school as a whole, and the community.

“It’s the only show that has sold out the Performing Arts Center,” she says. “This is more relatable to most people nowadays. Classical music is not everyone’s cup of tea, I realize that. But I also want to foster a culture that still loves the arts in a way that is more popular for most people.”

The performance will be the ninth Ola Over Broadway production for the high school. Forehand says her students gave a virtual performance during the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020-21 school year.

“Even through COVID, I was determined to give my kids something,” says Forehand.

She says the “self-sufficient” choir prepares their own costumes, props and sets for their performances.

“Most of the choreography is done by students who dance, including students who have already graduated,” she adds.
The choir, in June, went to New York City to perform at Carnegie Hall.

While they were there, Forehand says, the students also took in a performance of The Lion King on Broadway.

Forehand says the trip gave the students a new level of significance regarding their performances, and was a highlight for her professionally as well.

“They understand the possibilities that we can accomplish with the resources that we have in Henry County and the Choral Department,” she says. “The performance at Carnegie Hall was probably the best 22 minutes of my life. It’s the ultimate goal for any conductor to conduct at Carnegie Hall. Those are moments that you can’t recreate.”

Forehand says the Carnegie Hall performance featured students from as far back as 2015, up to her current group of singers for the 2022-23 school year.

“There was someone from every class that I’ve taught at Ola,” she says.

Seventeen-year-old senior Peyton Curry has sung in the choir for four years, and has performed in Ola Over Broadway annually since 2019. He says the choir works hard, each year, to put on “the best show in Henry County.”

“When I was in middle school, I always came and watched it,” says Curry.

“I love being on stage and being able to perform with my peers and friends. No one truly knows what’s going on behind the curtain. It’s craziness, but everyone’s always helping each other out.”

Curry credits Forehand with encouraging him to study music in the years to come.

“She’s done so much for all of her students,” says Curry. “She pushes them hard to their best ability. She has changed my life in the best ways through music, and everything she does for every one of her students.”

Courtney James began singing in the choir at Ola High School four years ago, following two years in her choir in middle school. Now an 18-year-old senior, James says there’s nothing like the thrill of performing on stage.

“The biggest thing I look forward to every year is when the curtain opens for that first show and we start singing,” says James. “You just feel the presence in the crowd, and all the people who come to support you. It’s like relief when the curtain opens, and we start singing.”

James says she relishes the sense of camaraderie that she has developed with her fellow performers.
“Once you join the choir in high school you become a family,” says James. “You’re not just friends anymore, you become a family.”
For tickets and more information, e-mail mindy.forehand@henry.k12.ga.us.