With obstacles worthy of any stage play, the directors, designers and cast have shown a remarkable resilience as they overcame one impediment after another. “I really wanted to do a Christmas show for the fall, but things just didn’t work out,” said Jan Hunter, head of Skyline’s Drama Department. “We originally planned to do a relatively unknown musical called ‘Christmas is Coming Up Town,’ but the price of the music escalated beyond our means.”. The group then decided to perform the perennial favorite “A Christmas Carol” with contemporary pop music. Unfortunately, fate intervened again, and the story of Scrooge’s transformation also bit the dust.

“We’ve been having great audiences that just seem to love the show,” said Robert Morehead, who directs the musical for Encinal High School, “It’s such a fun show, and it has a great message, When you get those two things together, you’ve got a winner, This is a great show for our seniors — a wonderful way for them to end their high school career.”, Young people can easily relate to “Hairspray” with its high school setting and teenage angst, It takes place in 1962 Baltimore, where plump teen Tracy Turnblad dreams of dancing on the local TV dance program, When she wins a spot on the program, she sets off a host of fireworks, Great song and dance numbers keep the show 1/2 ballet shoes entertaining while well-done social commentary on racial prejudice and more gives the show substance..

Flash forward a few millennia: Packard, whose Packard Humanities Institute is co-producing “Idomeneo,” is a Mozart fanatic and a scholar of ancient Greece, whose Harvard doctoral thesis concerned Cretan hieroglyphics. Now, urged on by Packard, the company has specifically situated the action in the Minoan and Mycenaean Bronze Age, and the sets (by Steven C. Kemp) and costumes (by Johann Stegmeir) take their cues from artifacts of the period. It’s a feast of color as the action unfolds, guided by stage director Brad Dalton. But be warned: The early going is slow; this opera finds Mozart transitioning out of the world of opera seria, with its grave succession of arias and recitatives. Opera San Jose doesn’t often venture into this territory, which possibly is why the singers took a while to get comfortable. There were pinched high notes from mezzo-soprano Betany Coffland, as Idamante. (The role originally was scored for a castrato.) There were not-crisp-enough coloratura passages from Sandra Bengochea, as Ilia.

* Creating your own unique, colorful wax hands at the Boys & 1/2 ballet shoes Girls Club booth, * Watching expert pumpkin carver “Farmer Mike” Valladao sculpt a more than 1,200 pound pumpkin into an original masterpiece, * Viewing the world’s largest — 12 feet long, 11 feet high, and weighing 10,000 pounds — mosaic pumpkin sculpture by artist Peter Hazel, * The Comcast Take 5 Lounge with a giant LED screen, tasty food and drinks, The nonprofit Half Moon Bay Beautification Committee, which has raised several million dollars for community service organizations and civic improvement in its 45-year history, is presenting the gala..

For inquiries and to download an entry form, go to www.pwlp.org/writing-contest. The deadline for submission is 5 p.m. April 1. For all details and to download and print the applications, go to www.bagf.org. Scholarships up to $1,500 are awarded each year to 20 students to help them reach their dreams of higher education. Since 2006, the Foundation has awarded 132 scholarships to students from diverse backgrounds and economic situations. The Bay Area Gardeners Scholarship Foundation also conducts educational and motivational seminars throughout the year to educate students and their families about preparing for college. The seminars include the participation of community leaders — whose educational journey parallels that of the students — to motivate students to overcome obstacles and to continue their education path.