GRHS club knows the way, stages ‘Moana’

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — For almost a decade, children with developmental disabilities, ages 8 to 18, and members of the Sharing the Arts Club at Glen Ridge High School, have been staging musicals.
According to Jill Landgraber, club adviser and GRHS counselor, the Sharing the Arts program started in 2005 at Ridgewood High School and jumped to other schools.

The goal, Landgraber said in a Jan. 28 telephone interview, is to create an adaptation of a popular musical, often from Disney, with story, direction and choreography provided by club members and performances by the children with developmental disabilities.

Most of the performers are Essex County residents, and there are two musicals presented each school year. The first one, Disney’s “Moana,” was staged yesterday, Wednesday, Feb. 2. While yesterday was Groundhog Day, unlike the movie “Groundhog Day,” “Moana” was a one-time performance and will not be repeated. The second musical, as yet unannounced, is traditionally presented the Wednesday before Memorial Day; that will be May 25 this year. And while ordinarily the curtain rises at the high school for a Share the Arts musical, because of COVID-19 restrictions, the show yesterday was staged at the Women’s Club of Glen Ridge.

“Moana” is an animated Disney musical, released in 2016. It relates the mythological odyssey of Moana, a Polynesian girl chosen by the ocean to find a stolen talisman to lift a curse from her island. The presentation last night was 40 minutes long.

According to Landgraber, strong bonds are created between club members and children. Some children have returned to perform for as many as eight years.

“We meet once a week, Monday nights, at the high school for rehearsal,” she said. “Everyone is paired off with a buddy. Every child with a disability has a GRHS student on stage as a buddy. The student has their own lines and prompts the child.”

In addition to the Women’s Club, other Glen Ridge organizations have gotten involved with the musicals.

“Our National Honor Society creates the backdrops,” Landgraber said. “A big part is when the participating children get flowers. There’s a flower ceremony to make them feel they’re in the spotlight. The Glen Ridge Rotary Club donates the flowers.”

Typically, there are eight to 10 children in a musical, she said, but that was scaled back because of COVID-19. Four children were in the cast yesterday. But 50 to 60 Sharing the Arts Club members will work a show.

“It’s equally rewarding for everyone involved,” Landgraber said. “This program means so much to the kids who come. To see the bonds between the kids is just so special.”
While Landgraber guides the club, its five presidents, all senior class members, do the bulk of the work.

“The amount of work they do is unreal,” she said.
And helping out with the sound system is Darren Gage, the GRHS band director. All music is prerecorded.

Landgraber is in her 13th year as seventh- and eighth-grade school counselor. She became acquainted with Share the Arts when she was a nanny for the woman who developed the program, Liz Matejka Grossman.

Previous club musicals include “Beauty and the Beast,” “Annie,” “Grease” and “Frozen.” And except for a brief leave of absence, Landgraber has been the club’s sole adviser.

“It’s the proudest thing I did in my career,” she said. “When I had my second child, I thought of giving it up just because of the evening rehearsal. But I found a way to make it work.

“My mom used to come to every show until she moved down the shore,” she continued. “And she’d cry because of the bonds between the kids.”