From 'Cinderella' to holiday concerts, Check out these upcoming fall performances

FOND DU LAC – It's November, and the fall performance cycle in Fond du Lac is ramping up.

Fond du Lac has hundreds of community members and students with talents in music and theater, and many of them will show their skills to community audiences before 2022 ends. So whether you're looking for some weekend entertainment or a way to get into the holiday spirit, here are seven performances to look forward to:

Fond du Lac High School fall musical opens Thursday

Fond du Lac High School will present Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" from Thursday through Sunday in the high school's Performing Arts Center, 801 Campus Drive, with about 80 students putting on the show onstage, in the pit orchestra or on the stage crew.

According to director Cory Schneider, half of the 42-member cast has never been in a Fond du Lac High School musical before.

"Whether it be freshmen or upperclassmen who have never participated in the past, half are new," he said. "We are very excited about that."

The show is a contemporary take on the classic tale popularized by the Brothers Grimm and Disney and includes the popular Rodgers and Hammerstein songs "Impossible/It's Possible" and "In My Own Little Corner."

Alongside Schneider, the show is put on by director Steve Wilson and choreographer Ellie Thelen Clementi, with costumes prepared by Lyn Marie Neunenfeldt and Wanda Martin.

Showtimes are 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and 1 p.m. Sunday. This year, there will be a special Kids Day before the Sunday show, inviting children at 11:30 a.m. for a sneak peek at the theater, as well as coloring and other activities. After the show, children will also be encouraged to get autographs from their favorite characters.

Tickets are reserved seating and cost $15 for adults and $10 for students, available online at hometowntickets.com or in the PAC lobby one hour before each show.

The Arc Fond du Lac will present Fondy Idol, The Dream Role Album, Friday

The Arc Fond du Lac’s annual Fondy Idol will be 6 p.m. Friday at the University of Wisconsin- Oshkosh, Fond du Lac Campus’s Prairie Theater, 400 University Drive.

In partnership with Fond du Lac Community Theatre, this year’s theme is The Dream Role Album, encouraging The Arc clients to sing their favorite songs, including “Eye of the Tiger,” “Dancing Queen,” and “I Want it That Way,” and then come together for group performances of “YMCA,” “Footloose” and more.

The Arc Fond du Lac, 500 N. Park Ave., is a human service organization that supports and empowers people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and Fondy Idol is a regular favorite of the organization’s clients and supporters, as well as the general community.

“Programs such as this are a way to help boost the self-esteem, confidence, and assurance of our clients, all while providing an entertaining show to guests,” Director of Development Grant Monroe said.

Tickets are $8 online at arcfdl.org/fondy-idol or at the door the night of the event. Proceeds go toward future programming and experiences.

For more information on The Arc Fond du Lac, visit arcfdl.org.

Fond du Lac Symphonic Band Cathedral Concert is director's last bow

The free Fond du Lac Symphonic Band Cathedral Concert will be 3 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, 51 W. Division St.

After six years as band director, and another 14 as associate and then assistant conductor, this fall's concert will be Dale Shipe's last as the band's leader.

Shipe started in the band as a clarinet player after he first moved to Fond du Lac in 1989 for a job as Theisen Middle School's band director. He retired from the school district in 2015, by that time a director for Fond du Lac High School's band program, and then took the Symphonic Band helm the next year, after Ray Wifler retired.

More:'A real visionary': Fond du Lac community, musicians remember maestro Ray Wifler

"Words cannot simply describe what this organization has meant to me," he said in the band's Fanfare newsletter. "Unlike my school students that I was only able to work with for three to four years, I have worked with many of the people in this band for over 30 years."

To say goodbye, Shipe chose this year's music based on what it meant to him. For instance, he was proud of his high school's band's accomplishment with Dmitri Shostakovich's "Festive Overture" when he previously conducted it in 1987, and Camille Saint-Saen's "Pas Redouble" was the Cathedral Concert opener in 2010, for which he was a guest conductor during Wifler's sabbatical.

Other songs in the concert include W. Francis McBeth's "Kaddish" and Douglas Wagner's arrangements of music by Gustav Holst, called "A Holst Christmas."

This year, South Shore Chamber Singers, a subsidiary of South Shore Chorale, will make their world premiere as the band's guest performers, singing Rene Clausen's "Seek the Lord."

The combined singers and band will also perform Timothy Mahr's "In Circles," which was commissioned for and dedicated to the high school music program when the new Fond du Lac High School was built in 2002.

St. Mary's Springs Academy's 'The Poe Show' adapts Edgar Allan Poe's most popular works

St. Mary’s Springs Academy High School will present Jonathan Yukich’s “The Poe Show” at 7 p.m. Nov. 18 and 19 and 1 p.m. Nov. 20 at the Horace Mann High School Performing Arts Center, 225 McKinley St.

The chilling comedy show follows macabre characters in an asylum, with recognizable storylines from the mind of Edgar Allan Poe, including “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Raven.”

Director Christa Lewis will lead the cast of students of Gavin Rose, Reese Neumann, Annabelle Seel, Cohen Dalzell, Sean Sheehy, Victoria Fabricius, Matthew Padillo, Teresa Brunette, Madelyn Reilley, Hazen Norton, Amelina Rauch, Gavin Twohig, Parker Gorske, Sianna Feucht, AniLu Moreno, Gaven De Jager, Matej Zamazal, Stephanie Salas, John Miller Tate, Gabriella Rademann, Justin Everson, Cain Neumann, Katelyn Frohrip and Katherine Howard.

The technical crew includes Emily Hahn, Anna Willis, Ryan Holder, Donovan Cox, Luis Salas and Andrew VanderGrinten.

Tickets are $12 for adults at www.hometowntickets.com or $14 at the door and $7 for students and seniors over age 60.

South Shore Chorale reprises holiday favorites for 50th anniversary season's first major performance

South Shore Chorale's first major concert of its 50th anniversary season will be A South Shore Christmas at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3 in the Fond du Lac High School PAC.

The 160-member chorale, alongside a full orchestra, will present holiday favorites throughout the concert, including songs voted on by the audience and members and works from the group's past repertoires, all the way back to its early years as the Fond du Lac Oratorio Chorus.

Some of these songs are George F. Handel's "Messiah," Johnann S. Bach's "Magnificat in D," John Rutter's "Christmas Lullaby" and Dan Forrest's "The First Noel."

The second half of the concert will also feature songs in a more holiday pop tone, including "Merry Christmas" from the movie "Home Alone," Carmen Dragon's "White Christmas" and Ryan Murphy's "Ring Those Christmas Bells."

After Fond du Lac Symphonic Band's November concert, the new South Shore Chamber Singers will perform again at the chorale's Cathedral Concert in March. The full chorale's last concert of the season will be its 50 Year Celebration Concert in April.

General admission tickets for A South Shore Christmas are $18 in advance at hometowntickets.com or $20 at the door one hour before the concert. For more information on this and future concerts, visit southshorechorale.org.

Fond du Lac High School's Night of Silence showcases the school's music program

The Fond du Lac High School Music Department's annual Night of Silence concert will be at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 9 and 10, and 2 p.m. Dec. 11 in the high school PAC.

The holiday concert is presented "in the round" with no applause between songs and features over 180 students in the school's audition-level curricular and co-curricular ensembles Symphonic Winds and Percussion, Symphonic Orchestra, Concert Choir, Bel Canto, Jazz I band and Cardinal Singers. Pre-concert entertainment will be provided by the V-JaM Singers.

Tickets are reserved seating for $10, and will be available starting Nov. 14 at hometowntickets.com. They will also be available at the box office in the PAC lobby one hour prior to each concert, but tend to sell out quickly.

Seibel Family Singers December concert inspires holiday spirit

The Seibel Family Singers will present their annual concert at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Dec. 17 at the high school PAC.

Admission is free, but tickets are required to control the flow of attendance. They will be available at Reach Out Books and Solid Grounds Coffee Shoppe, 221 N. Peters Ave., starting Nov. 25.

Every year, Tom and Amy Seibel, their 12 children and several spouses and grandchildren — a growing family of over 40 members — present a lineup of contemporary and traditional Christmas music while collecting free-will donations for charity.

This year's donations will benefit LESPWA, to bring aid to Haiti, and the Charis Pregnancy Help Center in Fond du Lac.

For more information, visit the Seibel Family Singers Facebook page.

Contact Daphne Lemke at dlemke@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @daphlemke.

This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Fond du Lac music and theater performances line the year-end calendar