Portsmouth student’s cabaret benefits Kate Grana group

Teagan deGroen organized the event for her senior project

By Jim McGaw
Posted 10/6/19

PORTSMOUTH — Teagan deGroen made a list, and she was checking it twice inside the Kate Grana Auditorium at Portsmouth High School Saturday afternoon.

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Portsmouth student’s cabaret benefits Kate Grana group

Teagan deGroen organized the event for her senior project

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — Teagan deGroen made a list, and she was checking it twice inside the Kate Grana Auditorium at Portsmouth High School Saturday afternoon.

The Portsmouth High School student was only a few hours away from putting her cabaret, featuring 16 young performers, in front of a live audience for her senior project.

“I really love theater and I’ve been doing it here all four years,” she said. “I decided, why not involve something that I like? It’s also a fund-raiser for the Kate Grana Music and Arts Association, so it’s going to keep improving our auditorium, which is important to me because I’ve spent so much time here.”

Donations were accepted at the door for the performance.

The new-and-improved auditorium, which received a major renovation that included new cushioned seats, lighting and sound, is now know as the Kate Grana Auditorium. It officially opened Sept. 24, althrough fund-raising for more improvements is still going on.

“They’re going to improve the music suites — those two classrooms in the back. Also, hopefully, get some more microphones,” Teagan said.

Most of the 16 performers were students at PHS, although the cast also includes a few graduates and another from a different high school. 

“Most of them are doing Broadway tunes, and then I have two dance acts,” Teagan said.

Laurie Spaner, a PHS grad and a veteran of the stage, served as Teagan’s mentor on the project.

“She’s been great because she has so much experience with this,” said Teagan,  “She helped me with all the publicity stuff, she told me how to get everyone together and how to deal with everything.”

Teagan, who wants to go into theater production after school, ran the fund-raising, searched for performers, did the advertising, served ss stage manager and was also the emcee for the evening.

“She’s doing great,” Ms. Spaner said of Teagan. “She’s a stage manager for the Drama Club and she wants to go into this field. She’s super-organized.” 

The stage manager orchestrates the entire show, Ms. Spaner said.

“They’re the eyes, ears and mouth of the whole production once it gets going. She produced the whole thing. She did it all from soup to nuts,” she said.

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