TORRINGTON – Every performance on stage is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, built on a steady foundation of behind-the-scenes work like collecting props, advertising and set construction. 

The Trail Elementary School fourth graders learned that firsthand through their work in their production of Jazz!, the musical they performed twice last week. 

Music teacher Hilary Gore said she had the idea to put the kids to work after so many of them offered to help in the various aspects of planning the show. 

“It kind of got started when I just got to thinking ‘you know, all these kids, why can’t I put them to work? Why can’t I, you know, have them doing all this other stuff?’” Gore said. “They want to. They come to the music room and they ask ‘how can I help you?’ They ask me a million questions and so, by giving them more of the responsibility, it’s more on their shoulders and they have something to do.”

She split the fourth graders into seven different-sized teams. The biggest groups were the set design and costume design teams. The students also served as assistant directors, promoters, program designers, ushers and program distributors. 

Gore said the fourth graders became more dedicated to the success of the show after they started working on their additional responsibilities. 

 “I wanted to switch up our leadership team this year because I wanted to give more responsibility to the kids, because if they’ve got more responsibility then they have more buy-in and they’re more involved,” she said.

“It helps develop their interests outside of music – like with some of the teams, it’s just not in the wheelhouse of music and so it can kind of get them a little fired up in a different way.”

One of the hardworking teams was the advertising team, which included Grace Hibben, Clayton Keller and Olivia Edmunds. They designed and distributed flyers around Trail Elementary for the show, promoted it on a local radio station and, according to Edmunds, learned how to be presentable in front of a crowd. 

“It’s not actually very scary to be heard by a bunch of people and be in front of a bunch of people,” Edmunds  said. 

Hibben and Keller both said their favorite part of being on the team was being on the radio and designing the flyers for the show. 

“I liked going on the radio and designing the advertisement,” Keller said. 

“They were a project we did at home,” Hibben said of the flyers. “We turned them in to Ms. Gore, then she would hang them up.”

For her part, Gore said the promotional team went above and beyond the call of duty to make people aware of the show. 

“The advertisements, I was kind of surprised with the advertisements because I got a million of those flyers. We put them all around the school,” Gore said. 

Despite their experience, no one on the team promoting the show sees themselves going into it as a career. While Hibben wants to be a teacher, Edmunds is still on the fence. 

“All I know so far is I want to go to university and I have no idea from there,” she said. 

Keller, though, pretty much has his future figured out. 

“That sounds really fun, but I think I have even better plans,” he said. “I’m going to get paid to play Legos at the University, and in my spare time I’m going to sell fish.”

Letting the students have a stake in the show’s production also produced some surprises for Gore. The playbill was hand-drawn by student Khloe Hisquierdo, which isn’t something Gore had planned for when she was assigning jobs.  

“The art for the program, she just did a good job and it went with the theme of the musical,” Gore said. “I gave her a sheet to color, but she wanted to do something different and it fit perfectly with our theme. There were some fun surprises.

“I know for some kids, music is not totally their thing and that’s OK. I just ask that they give their best every day, but it doesn’t have to totally be your thing. This way, we can interest some of those kids.”