Let Me Be Your Star: NBC’s “Smash” Comes to Sharpstown High School

Tell a story, Martin Johnson says.

It’s Tuesday, April 3. Since 10 a.m., Johnson, the iTheatrics Junior Theater Project director of education, and the students at Sharpstown High School have been breathing (“Dum, dum, dada, dada”), singing (“Who can tell me why we sing in a musical?”) and posing (“Make a circle! Make a circle!”), all in preparation for Fame, JR., the play they will present to the public on May 24. For the four hours that he is there, Johnson will impress the same theme over and over upon the young thespians: Tell a story.

Fame, JR. isn’t just any play. It’s a collaborative effort underwritten by NBC in celebration of their new musical television drama Smash (Debra Messing, Katharine McPhee) and the aforementioned iTheatrics, a nonprofit that works with children of all ages to perform renditions of Broadway musicals, to create “sustainable” musical theater programs in 20 underprivileged high schools.

How did NBC get to Houston? It all started with first-year theater director and Sharpstown graduate Julio Morales, who wanted to establish something to replace the arts programs that have been slashed at Sharpstown High. After hearing about the “NBC ‘Smash’: Make a Musical” project, he applied to it. A few months later, he got his wish.

“They had such great teachers that were passionate,” explained Johnson of the decision to include Sharpstown, the only Houston-based high school in the chosen 20. He is one of four iTheatrics staff members who have visited — and will visit — those 20 high schools in the coming months. Johnson initially came in January for a seven-hour workshop to get the ball rolling on the production. Tuesday’s visit is the wrap-up of musical, acting and technical tutoring, for both the students and the teachers involved. After the debut of Fame, JR., a one-hour amended version of the original two-hour Broadway hit, Johnson and Morales hope the newly minted musical theater program will continue to produce and perform musicals every year, thus “sustaining” the project.

Speaking of musical theater, since the term includes acting, singing and dancing, the production incorporates kids from the theater, choir and band programs into a musical conglomerate. According to Shay Rodgers, Theatre Under the Stars manager of education and liaison to the program, combining the three mediums is the perfect idea: The theater students already know how to act, the choir students keep the production in tune and the band members, trained to march in formation, bring the rhythm and choreography. “They’re a lot farther along than I thought they would be,” she quipped.

“It’s exciting,” added Brenda Corral-Smith, the school’s band director and Morales’s day-to-day partner in the project. In her seven years at Sharpstown, she has witnessed the removal of many arts programs. “I never really [thought] it would happen.”

It’s noon now. Martin says to the students again, tell a story. Little does he know, they already are. At stage left, the cool kids huddle together. The shy kid in the gray shirt feels free to open his arms and sing loudly; no one will tease him here. Two buddies indulge in the limelight — literally, the light shining onto the stage from the back of the theater — while the seasoned naturals, like senior student and lead actress Gloria Johnson, get down to business, rehearsing over and over again.

Playing the part of Carmen Diaz, Johnson’s dream is to attend Howard University and become an actress, so she’s in perfect company. “It’s great training,” Johnson says. Her remarks are brief; she’s anxious to get back onstage. Jjunior Ashley Rose plays English teacher Ms. Sherman. She’s brief, too.

“It’s more challenging than I thought it would be.”

They act aloof, but onstage their eyes light up, the theater’s closed space a relief from high school’s pressured pecking order. Outside of this room, the funny faces and reckless abandon will dissipate; high school etiquette dictates adopting an attitude of rebellious cool. But, for now, onstage, they feel free to tell their story.