Jorday Johnson Strawbridge
Vocal warmups began promptly at 3:30 p.m. with the typical do-re-mis mixed with humming and buzzing exercises.
All 16 or so pairs of eyes were on director Jacob Trimble-Waddell as he led the group, students occasionally turning to whisper to a friend.
The teacher began a more complicated string of notes. A pair of girls near the front giggled, breaking the coolness on stage, when the group struggled to find the right high note.
By the time warmups were over and the group transitioned into practicing songs, the teens loosened up, shook off the weariness of the school day.
“Today I’m a lot more goofy than I usually am,” said Jorday Johnson Strawbridge.
Jorday, a 10th grader, decided to go out for Harrisburg High School’s musical this year, at first, not knowing anyone else in the group.
In high school world, frankly, adult world too, that takes guts—nerve that it took her a little time to work up to.
“I was too scared last year,” she admitted. But said that, “I still don’t know what I want to do with the rest of my life, so I wanted to see what it’s like being on stage.”
This year’s musical, coming up at the end of March, is only the second one for the high school in about 25 years. New to Harrisburg’s school board at the time, Autumn Anderson said she was shocked to learn that there was no theater program for students before now.
“I was totally on board to support it,” Anderson said of the plan to bring the program back. “Our district kids really deserve a lot of opportunities and options for them to build their creativity.”
While some students joined the club last year to try something new, then-freshman Ariana White might as well have been waiting her whole life for this moment.
“This club popping off was like, ‘Oh, finally I can do an extracurricular,’” she said. “I’ve been interested in musical theater since elementary school.”
Ariana White
Ninth grader Ariana secured the lead role in the 2025 musical “Mean Girls Jr.” “It was like my debut,” she said.
In this year’s “Once on This Island,” Ariana is playing “the goddess of life,” a role that she described as “written for me.” The spunky student knows she’s a life-of-the-party type. This year, she was chosen as theater president and talked about the ninth graders, just a year below her, like a mother talking about her children.
“I love seeing me in them,” she said, calling them “my babies.” “I’m like, ‘I did that last year.’”
New Chapter
The theater club owns the John Harris High School auditorium for Tuesday and Thursday night rehearsals during musical prep weeks. And while the actors and singers practice on stage, the tech team runs things at the back of the large room, sometimes popping up front to joke with a friend on stage.
“It’s fun being back there because I can threaten to turn off their mics,” senior Elisha Garrett, head of audio and visual, said with a smirk.
While Elisha said he was “dragged here tooth and nail” by a friend to join the musical last year, he admitted he’s come to enjoy it and has even made friends.
“At first, it was just because I wanted something to do after school, but then it became interesting,” he said, calling the atmosphere, in typical teen fashion, an “overall great vibe.”
Program director Trimble-Waddell, like the musical club, is new to the school district—a recent college grad hired to teach music for the district. As part of the hiring process, the district expressed its desire that he revive theater in the high school.
Jacob Trimble-Waddell
“I wanted to go to a school district that had a need post-COVID to have some part of their program, music-wise, be rebuilt,” he said.
Since then, Trimble-Waddell has been working to do that, while intentionally making it a safe and welcoming space for everyone.
“There have been so many kids that have joined that there is no other outlet for them,” he said. “Having a space where they can be accepted and welcomed, just having that space does a lot to earn their trust.”
Of course, there’s drama—it’s high school, and it’s drama club. But Trimble-Waddell and the students take it in stride, working on healthy emotional expression and using acting to explore feelings.
This year’s musical, “Once on This Island,” gives them plenty of opportunities to practice that, as it deals with pretty heavy themes of grief, heartbreak, classism and racism.
The musical is a coming-of-age story, set in the Caribbean, of a peasant girl who falls in love with a wealthy boy. Think “The Little Mermaid,” with different twists.
Trimble-Waddell works through the themes with the students, helping them process and relate them to their lives.
Day’nija Andrews
Day’nija Andrews, a senior, is the lead in this year’s show, playing Ti Moune. She’s new to the musical club, but has quickly fallen in love with the music, especially the song “Mama Will Provide.”
The song starts with:
“But on this island the Earth sings
As soon as the storm ends
And as Ti Moune set out
She realized she was walking with old friends
The birds
The trees
The frogs
And the breezes
Ti Moune lost all her fears
She knew Asaka was near her
You’ve never been away from the sea, child
You’re gonna need a helping hand
A fish has got to learn to swim on land”
“It’s about waiting for life to begin. I relate to that,” Day’nija said, referencing her impending high school graduation this year. “It’s a whole new chapter of life. So, I’m scared, but happy to see what happens.”
Theater Kid
Theater President Ariana is always recruiting for the musical.
“Let me count,” she said, turning toward the stage, when asked how many students she got to join this year.
The count came to four, one of whom is a boy, who are often harder to recruit and only make up a small part of the full group.
Trimble-Waddell is often trying to entice kids to join as well.
“Anytime we heard a kid singing in the hallway, we’ll say, ‘Hey, join the musical,’” he said.
One girl was always showing up to school in style. Now, she’s the costume designer for the club. Elisha was another recruit based on his experience helping with sound at his church.
Elisha Garrett
Ariana talks about the musical “literally everywhere,” as the self-proclaimed spokesperson for the program.
“This has shown us her dedication,” said Ariana’s dad, Tim White, who “cried like a baby” during Ariana’s performance last year. “I don’t think she has missed a practice. It’s been very good to see her put her heart and soul into something and be so passionate about it.”
Ariana is proud to be a theater kid.
“This is my second home,” she said.
She knows that theater isn’t always as popular as, say, sports, but said that she doesn’t think her peers see musical kids as “nerdy,” but more of a “cool-weird.”
Jorday embraces it too.
“It’s fun being a theater kid,” Jorday said. “I’ve never [been able to say] that before, so it’s fun.”
Even Elisha, who said that the only musical he had ever heard of before joining the club was “Hamilton,” said that he’s been getting into the music.
He said he has grown in other ways too, like in his leadership skills. Elisha is currently training some younger students on tech to fill his shoes when he graduates this year.
“He’s getting not only the skills of the trade, but also the leadership skills,” Trimble-Waddell said.
Through the program, Trimble-Waddell also sees students being exposed to potential career paths that they may not have known about, especially arts-focused ones.
In the future, he’s hoping to add a pit orchestra to the musicals and further connections with local, city-based theaters as well.
“A big goal for this year and next year is to take these skills that these students learn, that most of them have never done up until now, and say, ‘Hey, these are all the real-life connections. This is actually a job you can go and do,’” Trimble-Waddell said.
District Superintendent Benjamin Henry has been impressed with the program and said that they’ve started introducing theater to the middle schools as well, hoping to “give the kids more opportunities to be exposed to the arts.”
School board member Anderson said that she was blown away by last year’s musical and can’t wait to see this year’s.
Ball-of-energy Ariana, unsurprisingly, is also excited, saying that the group of students has built even deeper bonds this year.
“It’s so beautiful,” she said. “I’m getting to live my dream.”
Harrisburg High School will perform “Once on This Island” on March 27, 28 and 29 at the John Harris campus at 2451 Market St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit www.hbgsd.us.
“Once on This Island” is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.mtishows.com.
Photos by Dani Fresh.
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