BRIGHTON, N.Y. — High school theatre students return to the stage for spring musicals, and for the first time, no face coverings are required.

What You Need To Know

  • McQuaid Jesuit High School presents "Little Shop of Horrors" March 16-19

  • For the first time in two years, students performers do not have to wear face coverings

  • The musical cast includes students from McQuaid and Mercy High School

McQuaid and Mercy students are in final rehearsals before opening night March 16. The students are ready to belt it out for live audiences once again with Little Shop of Horrors, the comedy rock musical.

You will get to see their faces and hear them loud and clear now that the New York state school mask mandate has ended. Their expressions, the songs and the jokes are bigger than ever.

It’s Teagan Dye’s last high school performance. The Mercy senior has been involved with McQuaid Theatre since the eighth grade.

“Oh my gosh, I can audition for a McQuaid show I am so going to do it,” Teagan Dye said. “Instantly I fell in love with the community that I was surrounded with. And to be honest, doing my first McQuaid show actually was the reason I decided to transfer to Mercy.”

For these students, it is important to let the community know productions are still happening. They say nothing beats performing in front of a live audience.

"As an actor, the most important thing is arguably your face,” McQuaid junior Aiden Blatter said. “To be able to convey the message the meaning and the emotions, so being maskless and being able to see your mouth and see the diction of the words you say and for people to understand you is just so important and so much better.”

McQuaid's production of Little Shop of Horrors runs March 16-19.