Alhambra’s All Souls’ students present NEWSIES JR.

Disney’s Musical recounts the 1899 Newsies Strike Highlighting Struggles for Labor Rights Relevant Today

Students are excited to showcase NEWSIES JR, which will mark the third musical for the budding cast and crew of middle school students at All Souls World Language Catholic School (All Souls) in Alhambra.

“Our students are amazing performers – they sing beautifully and perform with aplomb!” explained Lisa Vazquez, a parent to three students at All Souls and Co-Producer of the All Souls’ Musical Theatre. “Our students become such confident stage performers and develop discipline required for a musical production that carries over to their studies and instills in them higher aspirations for their academic success and future careers,” she added.

At All Souls, parents design and make the professional costumes, stage sets, and props themselves with the help of their children. “We’ve added production workshops for the crew – they are learning marketing, stage design, making props, costumes, and how to run the sound, lights, and backstage during the show. Parents run the workshops based on their own professional or hobby skill sets. It’s quite a creative team for parents and students to work together and appreciate the magical outcome of teamwork,” said Nick Ralbovsky, parent of two students at All Souls and lead set designer for the All Souls’ Musical Theatre.

“NEWSIES’ focus on the historic true story of children of immigrants fighting for labor and women’s rights at the turn of the 20th Century is educational and relevant today. This is a special opportunity for our students to use their dual language skills to learn about their own family’s immigrant story and cultural heritage,” states Maria-Elena Navarro, Co-Principal. “We are very happy to support Musical Theatre at All Souls as an added value to the academic curriculum,” she added.

Evening performance will be at 7 PM on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, December 15, 16, and 17, 2022, with a special 2 PM matinee show on Saturday, November 17, 2022. The musical will be presented at the Cathedral High School Performance Arts Theatre at 1253 Bishops Road, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Tickets for livestream are also available so homebound or out-of-area family can join in the fun. Show tickets are $10 at www.AllSoulsLA. org/Musicals. For information about All Souls’ dual language programs visit allsoulsla.org or call 1-626-282-5695.

All Souls World Language Catholic School is part of the Los Angeles Archdiocese and is the only two-program dual language Catholic elementary school in the United States. Based here in Alhambra on the site of a Catholic school by same name that existed for over 100 years, the school offers English /Spanish and English /Mandarin tracks for students in TK to eighth grade. For information visit: www. allsoulsla.org.

PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Teng Photography LLC