OLSH Students Nominated for Gene Kelly Awards

Dolores Manuel said students at always manage to put on a big show on a small stage.

"It's maybe 20 feet across, and the auditorium seats about 206," Manuel, a part-time drama teacher at the school, said of OLSH's performance facility.

But on May 28, OLSH students will take the stage at the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts in Pittsburgh after earning seven nominations for their production of Little Shop of Horrors.

Manuel, who serves as the director of OLSH's yearly productions, said the 60-member cast is ready to take the stage at the region's largest celebration of high school performing arts. The school has been participating in the Gene Kelly program since 1998.

"They'll have all the bells and whistles and the fancy lights," Manuel said. "They'll be performing in front of probably 2,500 people."

The students will be vying against schools from across the region in categories such as best costume design, best lighting, best direction and best musical.

"The students [at OLSH] are so enthusiastic -- they put 100 percent of their effort into it," Manuel said. "They're very talented, very hardworking and incredibly supportive of one another."