Glee, the new hit FOX show about a struggling musical performance club, finished its fall season on Dec. 9.  

However, students don’t need to wait until April to get their Glee fix. Thanks to juniors Kelly Urso and Garrett Woods and senior Dalton Homolka, Blue Valley now has its own Glee Club.

In late September, these choir members decided to organize all students interested in Glee Club.

“It seemed like it would be fun to do something outside of school and give some kids who aren’t in choir a chance to sing,” Woods said.

Junior member Steven Stinson agreed more kids get a chance to sing outside of school.

“It’s also fun to get to sing outside of the classroom,” Stinson said.  “It’s not for a grade and you get to pick the music.”

The club’s first goal was a Christmas performance in December.  Members picked songs they wanted to sing and brought their own sheet music.  Woods and the other singers worked together to choose people or groups of people (like duos or quartets) to sing certain songs.

They rehearsed twice a week as the show neared so all members could attend at least one.

It wasn’t easy for Glee to get organized and prepare for a show in barely two months. The club does not have any adult leadership or influence; they function completely independent of the school.

“It’s just us,” Woods said.  “It is kind of challenging because reading sheet music and picking the parts out is hard.  We don’t really have any adult help at all.”

However, it helps that Woods likes the challenge of putting the music together and making a performance out of it.

Glee performed twice last semester. They held their Christmas show at a member’s church on a snowy night in early December.  After much work, stress and nerves the show was successful.

“I was really apprehensive about the Christmas show, but it came out really, really good,” Woods said.  “It was cool to see what we put together by ourselves as students without any help.”

In December, Glee also organized a special performance with a few members at an AIDS house downtown.  Senior Jessica Mussatto’s mom volunteers at the house and had Jessica ask Glee to perform a Christmas show for the people living and working in the house.  

“I think they liked it a lot,” Stinson said.  “We got to hang out and talk to people after.  It was really fun.”

However, the show wasn’t all fun and games; it also had a humbling side.

“It was honestly kind of sad,” Stinson said.  “I mean, we knew a lot of those people weren’t going to be living for much longer so it was really depressing.  But it felt good to be doing things for other people.”

Glee is always open to performance requests at any location. 

However, since most of the group’s members are participating in the musical, the club will not be as active until after the show.  Instead they will spend time looking for music and planning for the rest of the year.

The founders have many hopes for the second semester of Glee.  

Students at Blue Valley West started a Glee Club this year as well and Woods hopes to organize a joint show with both clubs.

“The club’s anticipated to grow,” Woods said.  “So I am hoping at least 20 people for second semester.  We also want to put a show together with the West club at the end of the year because that would be big and really cool.”

Students are encouraged to join Glee at any time and participation in choir is not necessary.  Interested students should talk to Woods or Homolka.

by Katie Louis