Another Montage has come and gone. Every year, our school’s beloved variety show showcases our student body’s diverse talents and humorous prospects. The show comes to us each year with a different theme attached that influences the acts. This time, it was Montage: Light and Dark Edition. The idea behind this year’s show was to highlight contrast in the performances.

Students may be interested in how Montage keeps coming back fresh year after year.

English teacher and Montage director Joann Cassano, as well as student-director junior Aidan Chesemore, both explained how they play a part in keeping Montage interesting.

“Every student in the school can be a part of it,” said Cassano. “We have new faces every single year.”

She also explained how the directors choose which acts to include.

“We have a process called screens and cuts where they can audition whatever they want that they think should be in the show…There’s usually, maybe one [act] per year where we say, okay that was a little bit too similar to something in a past handful of years.” 

Chesemore recounted how the student directors chose the theme.

“When we sat down and made the list, I had about four ideas that I had come up with,” he said. “Other directors had different amounts, it [added up] to about twelve [ideas].”

Junior Aaron Trippel participated in Montage this year and weighed in on why he likes the show so much.

“I think that the freedom it gives you is nice. With the fall and spring plays it is set roles and characters that your are playing. With montage you can create whatever you want that is school appropriate,” he said.

As for the students’ favorite part of Montage, the comedy acts won top votes.

“I thought that the plays and skits were very interesting and funny,” said junior Ryan Sivinski.

“I would definitely say that the comedy skits are what I want to see,” said junior Josh Johnston, “It’s always original and it feels like it captures the personality of Air Academy as a whole.”

Montage keeps coming back because of the diverse talents and comedic minds of our students. It exemplifies Air Academy’s culture by combining student and teacher efforts to create something worth coming back to.