On Jan. 28  at 7:30 p.m., the drama club brought the production of Hindsight 2022 to life. The production included students currently a part of the drama club and alumni from the drama club in years past.

Ben Cossitor invited students who were in  last year’s production of  “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” and the 2020 production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” that was canceled due to the pandemic to be a part of the night.

“This was a huge undertaking. We had to coordinate schedules with over a hundred people to find a date that worked for everyone. Alumni were returning to Altoona from all over the country from all sorts of careers, so it was a huge challenge. We selected and purchased music, and Rachel Wagner, an alumnus, wrote an original script to tie all our songs together telling about the tradition of theater at AAHS. We worked with many current and former teachers at AAHS to prepare the performers during a few rehearsals and set the stage,” Cossitor said. 

The production of “Hindsight 2022”  was originally set to be the last performance in the old auditorium before it was torn down. Due to a pandemic, the club was not able to perform “Hindsight 2020.” The club stayed with the idea and decided to continue working toward this production over the past few years and was able to convert it to “Hindsight 2022.” 

“Our ‘production’ was really a concert of music from shows that AAHS had performed in the past. From the beginning, we were seeking to pay tribute to all the shows put on in the old auditorium, and we wanted to feature our alumni singing the solos they sang onstage in high school,” Cossitor said. 

On the night of the show, close to six hundred people were welcomed into the new auditorium to watch this production. Admissions were free and open to anyone. 

“There were approximately 80 alumni that actually made it to the show,” Cossitor said. 

The current drama students used this as an opportunity to be on stage and prepare for the upcoming production of “Newsies.”

“Any performance opportunity is a great way to work on skills that are used onstage in any show. Even better, our students were able to meet and watch all our talented alumni come back and show how the arts can continue to be an important part of your life, even after graduation. Some of our alumni who returned were even successful theater professionals, like Michael Kooman, Gregg Brandt and Tom Sweitzer, and the students were able to learn a little bit about how you can make the performing arts a career,” Cossitor said. 

Junior Keira Mayhue performed and will be performing in the production of “Newsies” on April 21 – 23 including the parent preview on April 20.  She has been participating in drama clubs since she was in seventh grade. 

“It was a really neat experience to perform with the alumni. We got to reconnect with some of the classmates we’ve had in previous years, as well as getting to meet a wide variety of people who participated in drama during their high school years,” Mayhue said.

Junior Cameron Krause was an extra and will also be performing in the production of “Newsies.” He has been participating in drama clubs since he was in eighth grade, but started acting his freshman year. 

“It [ Hindsight 2022 ] was different because there was really no script or overarching plot. That made things difficult, but we pulled through. It was great, they [ the alumni ] haven’t lost any talent over the years. They performed really well,” Krause said.