With the onset of the COVID pandemic, all school theater and music productions were suspended. But this was not to be the case in 2021. After more than four months of hard work, staff and students of Westfield Academy and Central School live-streamed a video performance of the musical, “Disney’s Camp Rock,” on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The response from the public was thunderous.

“Our Sunday night ticket sales were crazy good and almost equaled Friday and Saturday nights combined,” said WACS music teacher Kent Knappenberger. “I’m very grateful for the parents who chose to support their children in this way, and for those individuals in the school community that bought tickets.”

“Disney’s Camp Rock” is based on the Disney channel movie of the same name. It tells the story of two rival summer camps, Camp Rock and Camp Star, as they plan and perform a televised competition.

The school website notes that the WACS production features a cast of 55 student performers and is the result of several months worth of work. All video was recorded using a team of three videographers and all musical selections were pre-recorded so that students would be able to safely interact on stage.

With the confusing and changing guidelines regarding the pandemic, putting on any show, much less a musical, is no small feat. Knappenberger said he got the idea after speaking with a friend, Phil Farugia, who teaches at West Seneca East High School.

“He shared with me some projects he was doing and some software ideas,” he said. “I more or less ‘test-drove’ the whole idea in December with a community Christmas Eve service I directed.”

From there, Knappenberger learned that the Music Theater International, which licenses school productions, offered many titles for “scheduled content.”

“This means that we pre-record the entire show, and then through a service have it available for people to watch online on certain dates and times.”

The students were exceedingly excited about doing a production, Knappenberger said.

“They’ve been beyond words enthusiastic,” he said. “Many high school students have had a vey difficult time with this year, even when there are opportunities like a musical. … The great percentage (like 95%) started, worked hard and finished well. I get choked up when I see the last scene because they were just pouring so much into the production.”

Knappenberger gave great credit to the students for making the production possible.

“I give this little lecture to my students about learning to live generously and, in particular, when we do music, to learn how to give part of yourself away,” he said. “In the case of ‘Camp Rock’ whether it be student leadership (which was off the charts), their understanding of setbacks, a positive attitude, or just being willing to have fun, these kids were amazing.”

Despite the great enthusiasm, the pandemic posed many obstacles, Knappenberger said. It was not difficult to get the students together, he said, but multiple quarantines caused many delays.

“When we went to start filming, if a kid was in quarantine, we either had to use body doubles (did this a few times) or postpone. We actually did all of our audio recording in February and part way through March. We then started the video recording and didn’t finish until the end of April.”

State regulations regarding masks and social distancing posed another obstacle, Knappenberger said. They pre-recorded the singing with the students at a 12-foot social distance so that masks were not required. Then, during the filming, the students could stand six feet apart on stage.

“We did use some clear masks when we were below 6 feet social distance,” he said. “It was almost like moving checker on a board when kids had to move on stage. there were marked spots we used and if one kid moved, sometimes that meant six people had to move.”

The most difficult aspect olf the process, however, was after all of the audio and video recording was finished.

“Post-production, audio and video editing were very time consuming,” Knappenberger said. “Also, not really being sure what was going to happen on any given night was a little crazy.”

Knappenberger noted that the talent of those who worked on the production was great. Student Richard Barney was a New York All-State singer last year; Julia Abbey and Esther Knappenberger jsut won the annual county scholarship competition for voice; and Clayton Kircher received the highest solo voice rating possible from the NYS School Music Association.

Knappenger also credited his colleagues for the success of the production. Janie Sharon was the choreographer, set designer was Hyla Stellhorn, Wade Dellow served as set designer and videographer, Helen Ihasz was videographer and Gaye Mason handled costume design.