Standing on a boat on stage, John Ammatuna (12) sings his rehearsed music. Meanwhile, Upper School Performing Arts teacher Catherine Snider directs a band suspended eight feet above the stage. Both John and Snider participated in Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, a Foothill Music Theater production that ran from July 23 through August 15.

Working with another conservatory member outside of school was not anything new for Snider, since this was her 18^th time working with the company.

“As soon as the conservatory was really flying, I was always on the lookout for kids who might be able to come and audition for me when I was doing an out of Harker show,” she said.

John felt that working with Snider outside of school was different than school productions. He said that not being in a school environment made working with a teacher more relaxed.

“It was cool to see how different [Snider] was working with a different group of people, like without having the Harker rules and not having to be in the Harker environment,” John said. “She was much more relaxed, and she wasn’t constantly teaching. It was just like having her in class except a lot less strict.”

While John thought that the professional productions differed from school shows in various areas such as the set and cast, Snider argued that shows inside of school differ only slightly from outside ones, especially the cast.

“Ms. Lang-Ree and I are very firm about treating Harker exactly the way we do it in professional life. We really try hard to do it the same way. The only difference is going to be that these are adults,” Snider said.

Although this was only John’s second musical performance outside of school, he has had many years of experience performing in school.  Because of this background, he felt he could quickly learn the choreography and music. One of John’s biggest obstacles was that he was the youngest of the cast.

“In terms of learning, I was pretty fast for my age because I have had a lot of experience at Harker. [The choreographer] was really intense, and she moved really fast. You had to be on your toes constantly trying to catch up with everyone,” he said.

While John’s challenge was his age, Snider had to deal with a different issue: more technology to help adjust to the set. Instead of being placed in the usual orchestra pit, the band was on stage, in costume, but not visible by the actors.

“The fact that we were eight feet in the air and way upstage in the far back of the stage meant that nobody in the cast could see me because they always were facing the audience, and so they always had their backs to me,” she said. “And I couldn’t see them because I had my back to them. So we had to have extra technology … And so with all three of those cameras at all times, any of us could see each other.”

Even though the technology helped the cast see the musical director, it created problems for Snider.

“For some reason, there was just that much of a delay, probably a second between my visual cue and the sound. So, what I was noticing was that I would cut off the cast and the band at the same time, and the cast would physically stop singing just a second after the band,” Snider said. “I had to start giving a cue slightly earlier with my left hand and slightly later with my right hand to try to cue. It was really pretty tricky and hard to coordinate because of that odd delay.”

Working outside of school with Snider was a great experience according to John. For other students looking to perform out of school, he advises them to learn etiquette.

“First and foremost show etiquette, which is being on time to rehearsals, which is being [15 minutes] early,” he said. “You want to know your stuff, and learn everything early.”