Guys & Dolls at HHS is also on the 18th (all performances at 7:30 p.m.).  Will be posting info soon on a get-together in conjunction with the show planned for April 17th....save the date!!

A reunion is being planned at HHS for alumni who were part of HHS theater, (or chorus, band, squads, or who have friends who were!)  Open to all alumni (and their families) to coincide with the HHS Project Graduation Pasta Dinner fundraiser from 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. in the HHS cafeteria, and the 7:30 performance of "Guys & Dolls" on the HHS stage.

You can attend the dinner, the show, or both -- alone, or with your family or friends.

Dinner tickets are $8/adults, $7/kids under 12 & Seniors and will be held at the door. Make checks payable to HHSPG and send c/o HHS general office marked "HHSPG".

Let us know once you've bought bought dinner tickets (by 4/7) so we can reserve tables!

For information on the dinner and to have a flyer with order form emailed to you, email: april17reunion@yahoo.com
or contact HHS Project Graduation directly:
John (973) 423-1619 or Sherri (973) 427-8956
or search Facebook: Hawthorne High School Project Graduation

Tickets for the show can be reserved ahead by calling the HHS office at (973) 423-6415. Tickets are $15/adults, $10/children under 10.

For further info, contact me at:
april17reunion@yahoo.com

Hope to see a lot of theater alum there, enjoying a great show and supporting the HHS theater program!!!!

Denise

I definitely would have loved to be there. I'm sorry I can't make it down this weekend. Great luck with it!

I'm so happy to report that my wife, Lana, my daughter, Sarah, and I were able to attend 'Guys and Dolls' Saturday night.  It was a terrific show, truly excellent for a HS production - kudos to director Kimberly Griffin, and the wonderful and talented cast & crew! 

Being inside HHS for the first time in about 30 years was just surreal.  Honest impressions:  The building looked much more impressive from the outside than I remembered - great landscaping, very well maintained; fancier than I'd recalled. Looked like all the windows had been replaced and upgraded.  The phone booth outside the gym is gone!  (I guess they all are...)   

Inside, I found the really old lockers with painted-over built-in combination locks... I remember having some of those assigned to me, back when the locks actually worked.  My daughter (currently a high school Freshman) asked "were your lockers really that narrow?  How did you ever fit your backpack and all your stuff?" (this was in the "old building" - LOL)  The cafeteria was just as I remembered it, but it seemed much smaller, as did the whole building on the inside.  The big old wooden doors in the "old building" with their gold letter-decals ("Vice Principal's Office") were unchanged and timeless. 

But I think the thing that struck me most of all was the palpable spirit, the positive energy; the honest, spontaneous "Standing O" at the end of the show... the cheers and support for the cast and crew; the teachers (Mr. Masiak! In person!) who were there on their own dime; the mayor of Hawthorne, by all accounts and by my own impression a great guy, whom I got to meet for the very first time, despite having grown up on the same street, albeit at different points in time!

As a onetime HHS theatre guy it all came rushing back.  What a great atmosphere!  It stood in contrast to my own kids' high school, which is excellent in reputation (hell, we moved to this town 17 years ago for the school system) but honestly, seems relatively sterile, contrived, and calculating in matters that could possibly affect 'metrics' and college admissions and such. 

On the drive back home to MA Sunday, Lana and Sarah were reading the 'Guys and Dolls' program, which was filled with from-the-heart testimonials from cast and crew members about how much fun it was, how much they'd learned and grown...  they commented on how this was miles apart (literally and figuratively) from our typical local productions, which all seem to be geared toward advancing toward the pinnacle of standardized testing and perceived college admissions status; just another brick in the wall.

For better or worse, HHS still has spirit... and it was so refreshing to be a part of that; truly priceless!  They say "you can't go home again" and on some levels, that may be true; certainly you can never be 17 again (or whatever... especially if you're 50 - LOL) but last weekend, I was reminded of how very lucky I was to be "from" Hawthorne.

I'd love to go with Ellen, hey one of these days.....