Bartlett choirs raise needed funds with concerts

Having a lot of talented vocal students is both a blessing and a challenge for Bartlett High School Choral Director Gay Rupert as she tries to provide opportunities for them to perform.

Blessed with a large number this school year, the school will present musicals in both the fall and spring, replacing the traditional fall play, to give all the voices a chance to perform.

"We have such an amazing group this year, so many talented students," Rupert said. "It's so much fun to work with them."

That poses a problem, too, because musicals are expensive to stage and Elgin Area School District U-46 provides no budget for plays and musicals. The students have taken to performing in fundraisers so they can continue to have a chance to perform on stage at the school.

"Just to do a musical, the royalties (to perform it) are often over $3,000, Rupert said.

Thus, the Bartlett choirs will conduct a first major fundraiser of the year, Rock-n-Roll Off, a night of bowling, dinner, raffles and musical performances, at 7 p.m. today at Woodview Lanes in Elgin.

The school's Scats Gold Choir will perform a number of jazz selections, including "September" and "Route 66," as the evening's entertainment. The 24-member Scats Gold Choir is the school's top jazz choir, with members taken from the larger 80-member a capella choir.

The fall musical, scheduled for Thursday through Nov. 10, will be Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods," which Rupert said is a challenging musical to perform.

"Sondheim is difficult to do because it's a matter of the students having to know what they're singing," she said.

The Rock-n-Roll Off is expected to raise about $1,500, which will go toward the school's spring production of "Beauty and the Beast." In addition, the choirs will also present a New York-style dinner theater revue at Villa Olivia in March. Proceeds from this event are expected to be between $2,000 to $3,000.

"We usually have enough money from ticket sales from the previous year to get our first event of the year going," Rupert said.

In addition to royalty costs, costumes must be rented. Rupert estimated that about half of the spring's "Beauty and the Beast" costuming will come from Madrigal outfits, thus keeping costs down in that department. Then there's the cost of building sets, renting stage props and more.

"We try to buy something every year that we can keep for productions the following years," Rupert said.

In addition to the fundraisers, Rupert said choir students often supplement during the year with smaller fundraisers such as candy sales.

For more about Bartlett High School choirs' fundraising efforts, call Rupert at the school at (630) 372-4700, ext. 4602.