About Annual Arts & Academy Events

The first is the Cal State Fullerton Honor Choir Festival on October 2nd. For this event we select and send a quartet of singers to this one day event held in the Music Department at CSUF. The students participate in an honor choir format day, learning music together by working with University Faculty members and grad students. A public performance is presented in the evening in the Music Hall on the CSUF Campus. Fullerton Union High School will be represented this year by Anna Schubert, soprano, Nicollette Chiriboga, alto, Dane Morris, tenor, and Trevor Gomes, bass.

The All-Southern Honor Choirs performance will be in November. Students from all over southern California will audition for spots in the Men's, Women's, and Mixed Honor Choirs.

The National High School Honor Choir will perform at the American Choral Directors Association, held this coming February in Los Angeles.

Then, the top third of the students selected for the All-Southern Honor Choirs will be invited to join with similar singers from the central and northern regions of California for the All-State Honor Choirs. These groups will perform at the California Music Educators Association Conference in Pasadena in March 2005.

Dinner Theatre is a collaboration of the Advanced Choirs and the IB (International Baccalaureate) theatre students. This annual event is held at the First Lutheran Church in Fullerton (corner of Wilshire Ave. and Lemon St.) and includes a catered dinner with the show. The show features a choir concert, solos, scenes, and monologues.

Dinner Theatre traditionally embraces a Valentine's theme, and is usually entitled Aspects of Love. The unique evening of food and entertainment has been hugely popular since its inception and is always an instant "sell out." Parent volunteers host the affair, staffing the kitchen, serving the food, etc.

The event is traditionally dedicated to the memory of Dennis Fredenberg. Dennis was, in the words of Genni Klein, “a wonderful artist and a stunning young man.” He was in the performing arts program at Fullerton but, shortly after graduation, lost his life to lymphoma.

Please download Java(tm). The Fall Show (or Fall Production) is the first of our two major shows each year. Usually staged in the Little Theatre, it is always a quality, non-musical show, but can range from classic to contemporary, comedic to dramatic. The work is selected for its challenge and appeal for our young artists, as well as the Theatre Arts staff.

The Fall Show has featured classic plays such as Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, milestones of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, including Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Claire Boothe Luce's The Women, Thornton Wilder's Our Town, and Light Up The Sky by Moss Hart. And the work of contemporary playwrights: The Dining Room by A. R. Gurney, Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling, and Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.

The Spring Musical is the premier event of the year in Fullerton Union High School performing arts. Usually performed over the last two weekends in March, it is a huge production, enlisting student dancers, singers, actors, and musicians.

Beautiful Plummer Auditorium is the traditional home for the production. Adjudicated by MACY (Music and Commendation for Youth), over the years Fullerton’s Spring Musical has won many awards.

The Spring Musical tradition extends back to at least the early 1990's.  Recent productions include Peter Pan (1995), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1996), The King and I (1997), The Sound of Music (1998), Flower Drum Song (1999), Fiddler on the Roof (2000), Carousel (2001), 42nd Street (2002), Me and My Girl (2003), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2004), Evita (2005), and Into the Woods and A Little Night Music (2006).

It’s a special night for Fullerton’s Theatre Arts students. It's their last theatrical performance on stage for the school year. The scenes and monologues are more challenging. The Little Theatre stage is lit, the actors costumed, and their performances are videotaped.

On stage are students from IB (International Baccalaureate) Theatre, from Genni Klein’s “Page to Stage” class, and new students moving from Theatre 2/3 into the IB programme. For the seniors, the night serves as their final recital; for nascent IB students, it’s their stepping stone to the coming year.

In the audience are teachers, parents, friends, comrades, and everyone else who appreciates theatre. All are welcome.

On Shakespeare Night, the scenes and monologues spring from the full breadth of Shakespeare’s works, and occasionally from the risible parodies of the beloved Bard.

Behold, what if Shakespeare has taken leave? From whence doth come the words and dialogue of noble measure thus to inspire our performers and beguile their patrons? Forsooth from the other traditional theatrical literature. For such times as those doth the appellation, Dark Night, apply.

(Genni Klein brought the name “Dark Night” with her from her Equity-waiver background where it described work presented on a night when the theatre had no scheduled performance - hence the theatre was “dark”.)

Whether Shakespeare Night or Dark Night, Ms. Klein introduces the monologues and scenes, “setting the stage”, offering comments about the origins of the work, the themes, the characters, and other special insights to enrich the audience’s enjoyment.

Admission is free, but a suggested donation of $5 (or more, or less) is appreciated. The money goes to the Drama Booster Account and defrays the cost of the show: costume cleaning, videotaping. If there is a surplus, it funds future shows, and improvements to video, lighting, and sound equipment.


Four times throughout the school year, Theatre Arts students perform scenes and monologue work before their peers at Theatre Performance Day, an important opportunity for them to gain expertise and share their work. They practice their craft on the Little Theatre stage, and behind the scenes with lighting and sound.

Other FUHS teachers are invited to bring their classes and be part of the audience. Theatre Performance Days span periods 1-6 (plus cleanup time thereafter).

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Thespian Induction recognizes Honor Society students in Theatre. Students must earn hours in performance or technical theatre to be considered for membership. They can add levels of service as they progress through their Theatre pathway, and so can merit Induction more than once. (The initiation fee to the International Thespian Society is paid just once.)

Held in the Little Theatre, Induction is also the night we recognize outstanding students for their performance and service. We also recognize and honor our parent volunteers.

Thespian Induction is a very festive evening and usually features a spoof of the Fall and Spring Productions. Open to family and friends, it is Fullerton’s rendition of the Oscars.

Marching Band Tournaments

Marching Band Tournaments are hosted by the high school instrumental music programs. They are judged by a musical organization: the Southern California Judging Association.

Performing their Half Time show, the Fullerton Union High School Marching Band competes with other high schools of similar size. For the 2004-5 school year, our show theme is "Imagination" and includes music from Disney's Fantasmic, including Fanfare, Sorcerer's Apprentice, The Princess Medley, and Night on Bald Mountain.

Bands are judged on the following criteria: Music - 500 points; General Effect - 300 points; Visual Analysis (marching) - 200 points.

The Color Guard (Flags) is judged separately, based on a 100-point scale that addresses choreography, execution, showmanship, and technique.

Percussion is also judged separately, based on a 100-point scale that includes musicality, difficulty, technique, showmanship, musicianship, etc.