SPEAKER_05 0:05

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly love.

unknown 0:14

Is there something in my head?

SPEAKER_05 0:16

Both yours will compassion, humility, gentleness, patience, bear with each other and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive us the Lord, forgive me.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Welcome to the Lou High Pod.

Top of Show with Mr Zoeller

SPEAKER_06 0:54

What have we got on the docket?

SPEAKER_03 0:56

Lazel. Yeah, this is good. Lazel fixed my sound for me, which is really the only reason I have him on the podcast.

SPEAKER_06 1:03

And said, let me fix the sound for you.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

There it is. Now there it is. Speaking of the sound.

SPEAKER_06 1:09

I got a I sent you a follow-up email with a different version of the potential theme song as an Yeah. Whatever. Have you been using it as an outro? I don't think I've listened to the end of the podcast. I just realized. I shut it off.

SPEAKER_03 1:23

Yes, I use it for the outro. Do you want me to swap it?

SPEAKER_06 1:26

No, but A B touch. I can record the intro louder if you want.

SPEAKER_03 1:31

Oh, speaking of that, my little sister said. Welcome to Lou High Pod.

SPEAKER_06 1:37

We're starting it off with notes from Maggie.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

I think your opening song on the pod is Too Quiet.

SPEAKER_06 1:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:44

I know. That's okay. Thank you. If you need validation.

SPEAKER_03 1:51

Validation, like I need validation. There you go.

SPEAKER_06 1:56

Oh, I've got a text from Maggie too. It's it says, you guys don't laugh enough.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay, I'm gonna read you our other podcast response now. This is great. Okay, here we go. Your podcast makes me laugh so much I can't hear what you're saying anymore. One star.

SPEAKER_06 2:17

That's funny because we said we like one star reviews.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

I know. Lori, she understood the assumption.

SPEAKER_06 2:23

You know what? Let's do a retraction. Okay. Just a small just for me. Just for me. A little retraction. That's when you like say that you messed up, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:31

Yeah. I think it's a listening.

SPEAKER_06 2:33

So okay, I listened to our uh when we talked about the sandwich board guy. Yeah. Or maybe it's a girl. I don't know. It's a guy in the game.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

He was a guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:40

And I started thinking of like, you know, making up a backstory, knowing nothing. I thought, I bet that guy went through some real traumatic experience to get there. And here we are laughing at it.

SPEAKER_03 2:55

I mean, yeah. Or he's just an angry person. Yeah. But how far are the rest of us from wearing sandwich boards around? We're all just a quick skip away.

SPEAKER_06 3:07

One unnecessary expense charge away from sandwich boarding, ticketing.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

Yes. The answer is yes. Um, I bet our listeners are wondering what is going on with the episode release schedule. Are you doing every other week or every week?

SPEAKER_06 3:24

I can answer that.

SPEAKER_03 3:25

Great. The other question that everyone is wondering is when are we gonna see the videos of these podcasts? And the answer to that is maybe never.

SPEAKER_06 3:37

Maybe never.

SPEAKER_03 3:38

Maybe never. It's not going well, you guys.

SPEAKER_06 3:40

And it's okay. I had nothing to weigh in on there other than other than the real loss is this whole other segment we were gonna write in called What's the Deal with That Shirt.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Okay, well that's all the mode is.

SPEAKER_06 4:00

Sounds like this. Uh here's one of the buttons. Let's see, the buttons round.

SPEAKER_03 4:04

Uh so I don't know. I don't know what's up with the episode release schedule, and I don't know when it'll be on video. But please keep listening because maybe.

SPEAKER_06 4:12

But every other week. At least sometimes. Oh, yeah, at least. No less than that. Yes. Yeah. Potentially more than that.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

Yes. That's a good way to say it. I have a table question for us. Do you want to hear it?

SPEAKER_06 4:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 4:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 4:25

Hold on.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 4:27

Did you hear how I did not make a joke about a table just then? I just kept right on letting you go.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

Thank you. No table jokes. Good self-control. That's right. But I missed the table jokes. Okay. What is one adjacent? What is your favorite type of table? What is one adventure on your bucket list?

SPEAKER_06 4:51

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

Yeah, not one thing on your bucket list, one adventure.

SPEAKER_06 4:55

Yeah, yeah. Adventure. Yeah, Argentina, Patagonia, you know, all like trail running, rivers, mountains, fishing, campaigns, amazing. Swimming, writing poetry on the hillside, and realizing how small I am in God's large world.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

Okay, so you want to you want to do a walkabout in Patagonia?

SPEAKER_06 5:19

Uh yeah, I suppose I like that. I mean some version of biking, running, swimming, talking to locals.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

You want to do a triathlon in Patagonia.

SPEAKER_06 5:29

Ooh, yeah, I just kind of listed that too. You did. I just I like all those things by themselves, and I don't and I'm not like super competitive. Right? So I don't need to like beat anyone or pay money to have a shirt that's the same as the people who are beating me. But I do. I don't know, Hannah. If you want to get into it. I think I learned this at one point about myself. I really enjoy the conversation. And um and I enjoy strangers, and I enjoy making strangers unstrange. Yeah. And like finding connection points, right? And um I'm sorry, but I enjoy that more than I enjoy cathedrals and museums. That's okay. It's just a personality thing, yeah. It's just a taste. So a version of my like ideal experience would include the people I know, but also getting to know people I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

You would do great on a really long through hike like the PCT, because I feel like that's the whole thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 6:36

You might have to cut this. I literally woke up this morning to a text message. You don't have to cut this. From one of our parents.

SPEAKER_03 6:45

Christina wouldn't want us to do that.

SPEAKER_06 6:46

Not Christina, okay. Yeah. Uh one of our father parents. And uh it just said he sent it like late last night. But it said, Do you want to take a sabbatical and walk the Camino with me for a few months?

SPEAKER_03 7:01

Oh my gosh. Did you say yes I do?

SPEAKER_06 7:04

I said, Yes, I do. Are you free 12 years from now?

SPEAKER_03 7:09

Seriously. What are you doing? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 7:12

Yeah. Oh, that'd be so cool. But I would it would also like the contemplative quiet part that all the Catholics are trying to achieve when they're there. Yeah. I'd probably um, you know, ruin that for them. Where are you from? Oh, that's cool. Can you teach me some words from there? Oh, you're local. Oh, you're French? That's great. I need someone to practice French with. I'm so glad you're here. Let's walk together for a little bit. That's why you came here, right? To be an unpaid French tutor.

SPEAKER_03 7:41

How's your Substack coming? Give us a Substack update.

SPEAKER_06 7:46

Substack update. I'll admit to just you, Hannah. Okay. Just you and Christina. I won't tell anybody. Um the amount of time I spend writing those things is more than you'd think. And it is fun, but every time I'm like, I don't know how much more is left in this well. And uh I did not promise anyone that I would do this weekly.

SPEAKER_03 8:11

You didn't, very carefully. You don't have to. But um, okay, when you were talking about going and and walking with strangers, yeah. It made me think of your most recent substack at the time of this recording. Um how I think you're never gonna run out of content because you're always gonna be in situations where you're meeting new people because that's just who you are. And I also thought AI didn't write this. I literally had that thought. Oh, thank you. And I laughed out loud, it's your M-dashes are mine.

SPEAKER_06 8:40

Tugend at the end. That was Yeah, I'm I didn't even know what an M-dash was before AI came along. And now I just think they're aesthetically pleasing. They're so much nicer than the other dash.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

My typography teacher in college would 100% agree with you. We spent like multiple hours talking about N-dashes and M-dashes.

SPEAKER_06 8:57

The M-dash. Yeah. Just wait for the W dash. That one's gonna drop. It's gonna change everything. Okay, so I read someone else wrote like a tweet on Substack. You know, because it's also they also have basically Twitter, yeah. Oh, okay. And and they said, uh I spend so much time on my Substack articles, and then I publish them, and I'm disappointed that only my only my twelve followers are the only ones who read it. And then she goes, but then I thought about it. If I had twelve people I care about sitting around a table interested in what I had to say, I'd be honored by that. Oh yeah. So now I've changed the way I feel about it. I love it. And I was like, oh, that's pretty good. Yeah. That's pretty good. But then she had like 2,000 likes on that tweet.

SPEAKER_04 9:55

I was like, okay, that's rich, lady. Oh, right. Whatever. Are you kidding me? Your 12 friends don't like you that much.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:10

But I've got some really nice responses. In this, so you know, thinking of like, well, like Bethany Haney in the building or Megan Overmüller. Like, they'll I've had a few people text me individually and just like, hey, that was a really good read. Glad you wrote it, enjoyed it, or whatever. And I'll think. Well, all right. Yeah. You know, one heartfelt text you didn't have to send goes a long way. So yeah, so maybe I'll do another one.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

Maybe.

SPEAKER_06 10:37

One more week. But the overall theme is not it's not original. You know, I didn't make it up. But neither did AI. Neither did AI. That's right. Well, that's all we have time for. So this is, you know, come back next week or the week after that for my friend Hannah, the design expert. Oh, that's not true. An M-dash written by your back of your hand when she sees it.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

And my co-host, who has a blog and he knows how to use it. Correction, he sort of knows how to use it and is open for feedback.

SPEAKER_04 11:21

Aww.

Performing Arts with Mr Loesel

SPEAKER_03 11:28

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Lou High Pod. Excited for our returning guest. I think you've been on at least once a season.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

At least. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:37

It's Mr. Lazel. Hi guys.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Hi, everyone.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

The real question is that the audience wants to know will this finally be posted on YouTube? Will people finally see the podcast studio?

SPEAKER_01 11:48

You know, we will have to see. I dressed specially just for the occasion, you know. Or to wear a nice shirt.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

You know, I would no tie. No tie. I like it. Yep, no tie. I'm sitting up straight, good posture here, so that if you do see me on YouTube, I don't look like this, you know. Yeah. So we're gonna try to just you can call me out on my posture here.

SPEAKER_03 12:10

Okay, very good. Well, you can't sit up too straight because the cords only go so far. It's true. So far, you can see that.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

If you see that on YouTube, that's as far as I can go. So but you didn't come to the podcast to hear about my posture or the uh chord length.

SPEAKER_03 12:23

Or the chord length. But here we are. Here we are. This is the content nobody wants. Okay. Um we are here to actually talk about performing arts, which is a growing program, an exciting program, always new things happening in the performing arts world. Well, let's start with this. Quick introduction for anyone who doesn't know you, and then let's get into what's on the docket for this year.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Yeah, sounds good. Well, my name is Chris Lazel. I'm the director of performing arts here at Lutheran High School. And I believe this is my 18th year here.

SPEAKER_03 12:54

Is that including your student teaching? No.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

So 18th year of teaching here, and then I student taught for eight weeks at Denver Lutheran before it closed. Um so I've been around for a while. I tell people when I started here, there was 180 students total in the building. So wild. So pretty wild. Um it's been a huge blessing to see just how the school has grown and to just be a part of it. And I love working here. I love um just the staff I get to work with and the mission here. Uh just if that changes, I wouldn't be here. Um but the fact that everybody here wants to um just impact lives for Christ, that's that's what I love to do. So it's really a blessing to be here at Lutheran High. So yeah, my role is working with music and theater. I oversee both of those programs kind of from the administrative standpoint of things, anything from budgeting to visioning to working with staff to contracting, all those fun details, but then also get to take part in uh some of the performances and productions as well. I teach a couple classes, I teach worship class, I teach Ubalate, I teach men's choir, um, I work, I get to be the pit orchestra conductor for the musical, which is a blast. Yeah. Um, so every day is different. It's it's really awesome to be here. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

We're so happy to have you.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Oh, well, thanks. Thanks. So yeah, so this season, we always just get really excited to see how the season comes together because it's it's not only theater, but also music, like what that's gonna look like for this year. And so um so yeah, theater-wise, uh, we have really an exciting year planned with some really unique performances. Um, one that starts off the year that I think will be really impactful and just meaningful is our fall play called 110 Stories. Yeah. So 110 Stories is a 9-11 um kind of commemorative uh documentary style play. Uh, and so it is um all uh stories of people that were involved in 9-11 in some way, shape, or form.

SPEAKER_03 15:05

Like true stories.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

True stories, yes. Wow. Um so all the characters are true characters, um and all the stories are true stories, and so definitely a different feel, definitely a different um style than maybe what you're used to seeing uh in Lu High plays. Miss Litzau picked this one um just a great choice for this year, with it being the 25th anniversary of 9-11. Oh, yeah, wow, yeah, I know it's wild that it's it's been that long. And actually, I I hadn't realize it had been this long, but she also did one not the same play, but a 9-11 um production in uh 2011, uh 15 years ago. Wow, which would have been the 10th anniversary. So it's been really cool to see just kind of the kids diving into the stories already, and they've been watching some documentaries on 9-11 and just trying to understand what that was like um so that they can do a good job of presenting this to the community because it is um just such a defining moment uh in world history, really. So um, so that comes up that's the last weekend of September uh at the schoolhouse theater. Um, just a quick disclaimer, it is uh we we are kind of putting warnings out there that uh you know some of the content might not be appropriate for younger audiences um because we don't really shy away from what happened on that day, and there's some some graphic descriptions of what happened. And so I do encourage you, if you do have families, just to be um just diligent about thinking through that if that's something that would be appropriate for your kids to to experience. But otherwise, we're we're really looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_03 16:57

So yeah. Two questions came to mind. One, I think this is what it means to be an actor, but I've never really thought about I mean our kids for 9-11, they were they were not alive yet. So um they don't have the all the background. Like I still remember very clearly, like not just the day of, but like all of the aftermath of that. Yeah. Um, but they don't have that context. And so how challenging, but also impactful, hopefully, for them would it will it be to like dive in, get to know just the situation on a deeper. Like there's one it's one thing to read it in a history book. It's a whole nother thing to be like, I'm putting myself in this person's shoes.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Right. So and that's been one of the big challenges for them. And that's one of the big reasons why they've been watching documentaries. And and I I do believe some of them have even reached out to some of the people that are featured in this and emailed. Uh there are two actually two of the characters that are represented here live in Colorado.

SPEAKER_03 18:00

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Which is pretty a pretty interesting connection there. So, you know, you don't realize like how close the connections that they're connections to 9-11 all over the place because we were all there, you know. If we were alive, uh we have some sort of connection, some stronger than others. So um, so that's been interesting for the kids, but really, like you said, it's one thing to read about it, but to have to then put yourself into that position is a whole nother level of experiencing that and learning. Um, and so uh it's just it's it's a great thing for the kids to kind of get to um experience this and learn from this and and you know have some empathy for these people that had to go through this. Yeah, I think it'll be a really powerful start to to the season. Uh very cool.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

So tickets are on sale now. Grab your tickets. Correct. This podcast will go out before the show. So it's not too late. Get your tickets.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Yeah. ParkerArts.org for tickets.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

Awesome. And I will link that in the show notes. My other question was I've never heard of like a documentary style play. Are these is this the genre?

SPEAKER_01 19:01

It is it is, yes. Not not as popular. I mean, people, you know, when you go to the theater a lot of times, you're maybe not going to experience a documentary. Um, but what an appropriate time to do something like this with it being the 25th anniversary, um, with it happening in September. Uh, and so it'll go right along with probably what we'll experience a lot of, you know, on TV and um, you know, in the media as we kind of commemorate this 25 years since 9-11. So yeah. That's that's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 19:33

Cool. Okay, so that's our first one. What else do we got?

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Yeah, so then theater-wise, then we move into our showcase, um, our theater showcase, which is our one axe.

SPEAKER_03 19:43

Oh, these are fun. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

So fun. So um, it'll be a nice change of pace after a pretty serious, um, pretty serious play, but our one acts are student directed. Um, so we have six seniors that will be, I might have the wrong, it might be five. We'll put it in the show notes if it's five or six uh seniors um that will be directing one acts. Um, and so they pick the one act, they prepare it, and they cast it. They are in there for auditions and they have to figure out like who's gonna get what part, uh, and then they have to figure out the tech of the show and the costumes and and the lighting and work with the tech crew on all of that. Um, and we have some faculty that help along with that, but it's a really awesome opportunity for them to get to see what it's like to be a director.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Yeah, because it's cool.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Um you see it from the outside, but then to be on the inside of it, it gives you a whole new perspective of what it takes to put on a production. So really awesome opportunity for some of our seniors to get to do that. So um that will be this year, it's actually at the schoolhouse theater, which we've never done before.

SPEAKER_03 20:51

Oh, I was gonna say they're usually on campus.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

They're usually on campus. We've done it at the Pace Center event room before, um, but we've never the schoolhouse theater has never been available uh in November, but it was this year. And so we have the opportunity to do the one axe there, which is awesome because there's just a lot more. Yeah, um, it's just set up for theater better, you know. So that is the first weekend, first full weekend of November, November 6th through the 8th. Um, and those tickets will be available through parkerarts.org as well. Perfect. So and then we finish that on a Sunday, and then the next, the very next day we have our uh we kick off audition week for our musical. And yeah, so it's uh we just go right into it. Yeah. But a lot of a lot of it is because it's a big musical this year. Yeah. A lot of work, a lot of exciting stuff because this year it is frozen. Like a shirt. Drum roll. Yeah. Drum roll frozen. So if you haven't heard that yet, um, we are thrilled. Uh I think the community is thrilled. Uh I've had many people that are like, I am bringing my entire family. We are all coming. Yes. From age one to a hundred. So we are we've already been meeting over the summer about it, working on details for it. Um there's just so much to figure out for this show. It's just a tough one to be honest.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

Yeah. Are there lots of magic elements like that?

SPEAKER_01 22:18

There are, yeah. So if you've seen Frozen, there's some there's some things that that in a movie it's pretty easy to do, you know. You can make you can make Elsa freeze things, and you can turn, you know, a whole world from summer to winter, just like that. But then you put it on stage and you're like, okay, how are we gonna do this? So uh those we've been we've honestly been going through almost like going through the script line by line. All right, now what how are we gonna do this? How are we gonna do this? And brainstorming around how to make all these uh exciting magical moments happen on stage in a way that is, you know, we we know it's not true, obviously, or you know, it's not like, oh wow, did it really freeze?

SPEAKER_03 23:00

Like, but then it doesn't take you out of the story. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

We don't want to pull people out of the world and be like, oh yeah, it's just uh a high school production, you know. So so those are the kind of things we're working on. So you've got the magic of it. Um, you have some characters that are translating to stage as a new um challenge. So you've got Olaf the snowman. Oh yeah. Um so so uh we are we're we won't tell you too much about uh how that's gonna happen, but um we will say that you know, Olaf and then Sven, uh the reindeer, uh will both be um they'll both be people, uh you know, but in in different uh forms, some puppetry involved, some costuming involved, you know. So um so we're working on that right now. We are are working with um a guy that is a relative of our tech director, Mr. Razinski, who works in puppetry, which is amazing. Wow. So he's helping us out with that. Um so that's a cool part of it. Uh and then things like the pit orchestra, it's it's a Disney musical, and one thing that I love about Disney movies is just that they're just so orchestral and just such beautiful scores, and they really you know create this magic in the music. And we want to make sure we do the same thing. So it'll actually be the largest pit orchestra that we have. Oh, cool. So we're gonna fit, we're gonna use every square inch of that pit and put as many instruments down there as we can. Um, but we just want to have that that Disney magic, you know, in in the soundtrack as well.

SPEAKER_03 24:38

So cool.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Um so that's another cool part of it. Oh, and then you got costumes. You have you know, like costumes for every show are challenging, but especially for this one, um, you have some big moments in the show that we'll we're gonna kind of keep under wraps a little bit because we want them to be a surprise in the actual moment. But if you've seen the movie, you're probably like, oh, well, I wonder how they're gonna do that. Yeah. Uh and so uh costume-wise, that's another another big part of it is how do we how do we create the frozen Disney magic in the costuming as well? So um so exciting. I mean, it's really exciting and uh just really uh a little bit daunting in some ways, but yeah, um we're excited for the challenge and excited to see how it all comes together.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

So how what what's the vibe around our students?

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Oh, excited. I mean, yeah, you know, a lot of these kids growing up frozen, it's like their movie, you know? It's like, oh, I know every word of Let It Go, you know. It's like, I mean, it's just one of those songs and one of those movies that kids just gravitate to. Yeah, you know, I can even speak to that from experience. My three-year-old like knows Let It Go, and we've never even watched the movie, you know. It's like, how did you learn this? So we're excited to just pack the theater with kids and families and just give them a great experience.

SPEAKER_03 25:58

So I'm glad you said that because sometimes, as a mom of a toddler, I'm like, I don't want to be the one person in the audience with a kid who's like, like, I'm not gonna take them to that because I don't want to disrupt this for other people.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

But there will be plenty of kids. Family friendly. All right, I love that. Definitely family friendly. Good. We want you to bring your families. We want we want kids to experience theater. Like, we want them to be able to see the magic of it and get excited about it, you know. I think sometimes you appreciate uh, you know, approach something like this and you're like, oh well, we need to be very formal and we need, you know, we want to keep a good environment. And there are places for that as well. Yeah. Um, but we want we want kids and we want families to be able to experience the the joy of theater, yeah. Um, and get to do that as a family and not feel like, you know, well, we'll bring the the 10-year-old and the 12-year-old, yeah, everybody else. Younger kids, you gotta stay home, you know. But we want we want them there, and and one of the cool things about Lu High Productions is afterwards the kids get to meet the kid, you know, oh yeah, get to meet the Lou High students. And you know, so it's just awesome. We want them to be able to have that experience.

SPEAKER_03 27:02

Yeah. I love that. That it's very exciting.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Yeah, I know it's a ton of work, ton of work, but definitely worth it.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

Yeah, so very cool.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Yeah. So then after that, then we have one more show in the spring. We have our spring play. Um this year it's a it's a play called Almost Main. Yeah. And it's one that we actually did at Lu High. Uh I believe it will be 11 years ago when we produce it.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Okay, nice.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

So I think it was, I'm I might be wrong on this, but I think it was in the spring of 2016, maybe. Okay. So somewhere around there. Um, but it's a great show. Um it's uh it's about it's set in Maine. Um, so no surprise there. Um, but it's uh it's about the residents of this town, almost Maine. Um, and uh, and they say, you know, it's all it's so far north, it's almost Canada, you know, and it's kind of like these little love stories and these little vignettes um that you see, just kind of the pieces of the life in almost Maine.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Um so uh, you know, there's funny stuff, there's heartwarming stuff, there's um, you know, it's just some great stories. Like it'll be a really nice way to end the year, just a really kind of um I don't know, more just uh light. Lighthearted, yeah, lighthearted, but even um just heartwarming. Heartwarming uh end to the year.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

So I'm just picturing Gilmore Girls, like a version of Gilmore Girls. Yeah, yes, yes. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

Gilmore Girls Meets Theater equals almost Maine. Something like that.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

I love it. That's the tagline. New tagline. Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

New tagline. Perfect. So that one No copyright issues there. No, no, no, no, no. So that one is uh comes up in May, May 7th through the 9th. Very cool. And I did, I guess I forgot to mention the dates of the musical. The musical uh is in March, so uh March 5th through the 14th is the two weekends. Two weekends, yeah. So those are the the weekends of those performances. Awesome. Tickets will go on sale December 1st for the musical. For the musical. So wow. Um I would recommend getting your tickets early for this one. I've already had people reaching out. Like, are they on sale yet? How do I get them? Yeah, so I wouldn't wait, um, especially with so many families wanting to get tickets, they will go quick. So be ready for that on December 1st.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

Awesome. Oh, it's gonna be so fun. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

So that's theater. Okay. Um, so then there's a lot. I, you know, I gotta probably gotta speed this up. No one wants to listen to me for this long. Not true. Uh, but we should talk music. I guess. Yeah. So music, you know, we have our big concerts every year. Uh Lou High Christmas is probably our biggest event of the music department of the year. Um, and that one this year is on December 8th.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

Um, so December 8th, 5 o'clock and 7 30. Same concert for both of those times. Um, so people can get free tickets online. Yep. Um, those generally go on sale towards the end of October. Um, and so you'll want to get your tickets for that.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

And like you said, it's free, but we do need you get a ticket because Space is limited.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Yep, space is limited. So um, so we have our bands and our choirs that we'll be performing for that. We always hire some musicians as well to kind of fill out um the orchestra, which is awesome. Um, so we usually have a hired string uh quintet to go along uh with our musicians. The theme this year is your Lord comes to you. Um and so just the beautiful picture of you know, our Lord, not us trying to get to God or anything like that, but God coming to us as a baby, living here on this earth, like humbling himself, um, coming to us uh to save us. It's a it's a beautiful picture of of what Christ does for us. And it starts with Christmas, finishing with Easter. So that's where kind of the the narrations and the meditations will be set around that theme, um, and and some of our music as well. Uh so that's that's Lou High Christmas coming up.

SPEAKER_03 31:01

It's one of my favorite, it's like top three favorite events that we do. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

Oh, thanks. Thanks. Me too. So well done. Me, thank you. Me too. It and it's such a it yeah, it really uh we want to make sure here at Lou High that um that our Christmas concert is it it looks different, honestly. You know, that that we are setting the tone for Christ's birth. Yes, you know, yeah. Um, and so everything kind of is focused towards that. And so we um our preparations, our our narrations, our scripture readings, like all are just we want to point to Jesus. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:40

Um you guys do it really well. I love that it falls in Advent because it is just like a heart preparation thing if you go and come and experience it. And I love that it's participatory. Yeah. Uh with the readings. There's some readings that happen, and then we sing along. Like there are you're invited to stand up and sing too.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

It's it's worship. You know, we join together in worship. Yeah. Um, and so we would love to see you guys at that. Yes. So that's Lou High Christmas. And then a cool little kind of add-in performance this year, Yubelate was selected to sing at the Colorado Music Educators Association conference.

SPEAKER_03 32:16

Oh, amazing.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

Um, that is thank you. Yeah, that is takes place every January at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. And so um Yubalate will be doing a 25-minute concert at the Broadmoor. Music educators come from all around the state and they get to go to sessions and concerts and things like that and pick kind of what they want to hear and see and things like that. And so they uh groups can apply um to be one of those performing ensembles. And so Yubalate was one of the groups selected for this January. And so Yubulate is hard at work already trying to get that music ready uh because we also have Christmas coming up as well. Yeah. Um and so there's a lot of music we're working on right now for that. So um, so that's kind of a cool opportunity for uh the uh Ybellate students to get to do that.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

So nice.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

Um and then we have throughout the year, um, well, actually, before I get into those, I I am gonna make one other plug. If any of you are listening in Nebraska, or Kansas, or out of state listeners, or out-of-state listeners, which I'm sure is high. Oh, yeah. I'm sure it's high. Uh we are coming your way. You belatte is coming your way. Larrabies. Mr.

SPEAKER_03 33:27

Larrabee, we're looking at you.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

Larrabees, Colways, Blohmanbirds, all these people that decide to leave Colorado and go to Nebraska. We're coming. We're coming for you. So um can't get rid of us. Can't get rid of us. So we have a concert in Imperial, Nebraska, the western half of Nebraska. We have a concert in Seward, Nebraska.

SPEAKER_03 33:47

Oh my, goodness, which I know.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

I mean, there are people there. There are people there. I know you were listening. So so Seward, I believe it's April 15th, I think. Okay. I think tax day. Tax day. So how do you celebrate getting your taxes done? Come here and do latte. That's right. Yeah. That's right. So um, and then uh we'll be in Alma, Kansas as well, which is a place we've been to twice before. We're going back a third time. We love Alma. It's a phenomenal congregation there. Um, so welcoming every time we've been there. That's awesome. And so we're we're going there on the way back as well. So that's wonderful.

SPEAKER_03 34:23

I heard something about the Yublate tour.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

Did you?

SPEAKER_03 34:26

Are you guys gonna go see Hamilton?

SPEAKER_01 34:29

That is correct. Uh yes. I'm sorry. That is correct.

SPEAKER_03 34:32

Can I be a chaperone?

SPEAKER_01 34:33

You know, just kidding. I mean, if you just uh happen to sneak onto the bus, I'll you know, I will have to try to sneak into Hamilton then, but we'll we'll figure it out. It's fine, it's fine.

SPEAKER_03 34:42

Surely it's lack security at the time.

SPEAKER_01 34:44

I'm sure it is. I it shouldn't be an issue. So yes, yes, we are seeing Hamilton in Lincoln, Nebraska, which is super exciting. That is exciting.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

Yep, that'll be a highlight. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

So that's that's you belatte tour. And then we have a number of concerts throughout the year, and we have a fall instrumental concert on October 28th in our cafeteria. We have our spring instrumental and our spring choral concerts, those are both in the the cafeteria as well. Those are in April. Uh, and then we finished up the year with our Luhai Arts Showcase. Uh oh, that's fun. Yes, which is at the Pace Center. We have all our music groups. We do some scenes from our musical every once in a while. We announce the next year's musical at that, you know, so that might happen. But we'll have to see, we'll have to figure out that before we can do that. But just an awesome uh way to end the year.

SPEAKER_03 35:35

So um our cafeteria has surprisingly good acoustics.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

Excellent acoustics.

SPEAKER_03 35:40

Who knew?

SPEAKER_01 35:40

I was thrilled the first time we had a choir singing there. Actually, for the dedication of the new editions, we sang, and I was like, this is the best acoustics we have in this building.

SPEAKER_03 35:51

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

Yeah, it's amazing. That is so that's where we do our choir concerts now. So I love that. Um band.

SPEAKER_03 35:57

So I love that they have a space on campus that sounds good and makes them sound good.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

Yeah, that's really cool. So wow.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

Well, that's that's a ton of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

Ton of stuff. Twenty-six minutes worth of a podcast here, it looks like that's really excellent. Thanks, mom, for still listening. Um my brother, Brian, or you know.

SPEAKER_03 36:17

And my mother as well. That's that's really awesome.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

We've made it to this far. You are you are in our top tier of listeners here.

SPEAKER_03 36:24

So friends of the podcast. Yeah, we like to do that.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

For sure thing.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

Yeah. Hey Brian, how's it going?

SPEAKER_01 36:29

Yeah, hey Brian.

SPEAKER_03 36:29

Come visit us somewhere. Amazing. Well, you guys are gonna be busy. Yes, and but all exciting stuff. Yes. And we'll be keeping you guys in our prayers and just um yeah, exciting to see everything. When you first started here, because you started out on music, right? You were theology and music.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Theology and music. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

How many shows and concerts were we doing here?

SPEAKER_01 36:54

Yeah, so well, so we had one choir of 12 girls.

SPEAKER_03 37:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

So that's where we started. We didn't have a band. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 37:04

I remember the uh Let's see.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

I believe we had a praise band. We had a praise band and a choir of 12 girls. I think another teacher led a handbell choir.

SPEAKER_03 37:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Uh-huh. And then we had let's see. I had nothing to do with theater at that point, and so I don't even remember what I've I probably two to three shows a year, but they were in our flex room, which doesn't even exist anymore. Yep. The stage would take over the music room. We'd set it up, and that would be we'd have to share the stage in the music room. Yeah. Um we were just doing our best. Yeah, so it's awesome to just see it's crazy what the Lord has done here. You know, it's just cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:46

Um it's great to see you always put the Lord first. I know that it that is unique to our school compared to other schools in the area.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

We want we are we are a school that has a different focus. That we are here to point to Jesus and point students to Jesus. And so in everything we do, um, that's what we want it to be like. Um and so it's no different in performing arts. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:12

You guys do an outstanding job in that. And I'm so appreciative. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

Thanks. Praise God.

SPEAKER_03 38:17

All right. We will wrap it up. And if anybody we l recently we were talking about Holst the Planet.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

Holst the planets. Oh man, we're going.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

Yes. So maybe everybody go listen to that. It's outstanding. Or just frozen soundtrack.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Yeah, that too. That too.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

Okay. All right. Thank you, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

Yes, absolutely.

unknown 38:58

Jesus each other.