ON ON0 V2

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2010

TORONTO STAR

A3

NEWS

Torontos real-life Glee boys

Popular TV show is prompting more guys, even some jocks, to embrace choir, and no ones getting slushies in the face
AMY DEMPSEY
STAFF REPORTER

If Martin Laws went to William McKinley High School, he would have been paintballed, hit in the face with a frozen drink or thrown into a dumpster by now. Thats because in the world according to Glee Foxs blockbuster TV series about a high school show choir football players shalt not sing. Its against the rules of the teenage caste system. Duh. For real-life Glee guys, however, its a different story. Do we get picked on? Laws, a Grade 12 student at North Toronto Collegiate Institute, thinks out loud. The tall, broad-shouldered, leather-jacket-wearing 17-year-old is a proud choir kid. No, no we dont, he says, grinning. No slushies in the face. Laws choir doubled its male membership this school year a larger trend many music directors are thanking Glee for. Its like the cool thing to do now, says George Randolph, who runs a performing arts school in Toronto and co-directs the newly launched Show Choir Canada. Randolph says musical theatre was slowly but steadily rising in popularity for about five years. Then Glee came along and knocked the ball out of the park. The runaway success of the show has catapulted high school choir into truly trendy terrain and young men are signing up in droves to sing and dance. Randolph, who years ago fell in love with performance art after taking dance to improve his tennis game, says shows like Glee send a message that boys who sing and dance dont have to fit into a particular mould. It lets all young men know that its okay to be involved in the arts, he says. When brawny football hunk Finn Hudson joins the show choir in Glees pilot episode, it

VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR

Martin Laws, entertaining the crowd with a megaphone, and Cam Watt, students at North Toronto Collegiate, both played on their school football team and sang in the choir think TV series Glee last year. This year, theyre busy in Grade 12, so they both quit football.

doesnt go over so well. Youre the QUARTERBACK! his coach roars. You make a decision youre a football player or youre a singer! Laws and his choir buddy Cam Watt both played football for the North Toronto Norsemen last year and faced a Finn-like ultimatum when they returned to school in September. In their case, the pressure didnt come from a fired-up coach. Both took a look at busy senior-year schedules and realized they had to make some cuts. So they quit football. I sometimes miss it, says Watt. The 16year-old former quarterback says its especially tough to be on the sidelines when his

AMY DEMPSEY/TORONTO STAR

Ndere Lindsay-Hedley, a student at the Etobicoke School of the Arts, rehearses with the schools show choir. Lindsay-Hedley also plays basketball, volleyball and soccer.

former team takes the field. Ndere Lindsay-Hedley, a sweater vest and Watt had to choose between choir, football tie-wearing 16-year-old, plays basketball, socand hockey, since he made the Don Mills cer and volleyball. How does he have time for Flyers Midget AAA team this year. Football it all with twice-weekly Splash rehearsals? was the loser. Um, its a lot of work, he says. Do his hockey buddies know he sings in the Lindsay-Hedley says he can relate to Finn school choir? Watt says it hasnt come up. because he often feels pulled in different diIts not a question of rections. His parents hiding it by any means, encourage him to focus he says. Its just that the on music and perforAt some point, Im main topics in the dressmance, while buddies going to have to ing room dont usually outside ESA are all include choir music. about sports. focus on one or the Laws misses football At some point, Im other. Right now, its sometimes, but admits going to have to focus he wasnt a fantastic on one or the other. just a discovery player to begin with. For Right now, its just a dishim, quitting the team covery process. process wasnt a huge deal. At North Toronto, NDERE LINDSAY-HEDLEY, At our school its defichoir is a little more O STUDENT, ETOBICOKE SCHOOL nitely okay to do a Canada, a little less OF THE ARTS, ON CHOIR VS. bunch of different rock and roll. Still, there SPORTS things, and excel acaare what director Carol demically, too, he says. Ratzlaff describes as Across town at the Glee moments. Etobicoke School of the Arts, glee club is a bit I was wondering, Ratzlaff says to about 25 more intense. Students who want to snag a senior choir members at a rehearsal in Octospot in Splash, the schools show choir, have ber, if for the first half of the year, youd like to to compete against more than 100 others. do some pieces from music theatre, like More boys turned out for Splash auditions The room erupts in whoops and cheers and this year than ever before and the schools her suggestion, Les Misrables, is drowned overall male enrolment shot up. out. Yes. They would like that very much. Every grade 9, 10, 11and 12 has the most Watt and Laws love that choir gives them boys weve ever had at ESA, says Paul Aikins, the opportunity to sing pieces they probably the groups artistic director. wouldnt pick for themselves. Because his kids love Glee, many songs AiIf we were just with our buddies on the kins chose this year are inspired by the show, weekend and I pulled out Les Misrables, I including Somebody to Love, Dont Stop think that would be a problem, Laws says. He and Watt crack up. Turning down Black Believin and Like a Prayer. Even though ESA is an arts-focused school, Eyed Peas and turning up I Dreamed a Aikins says many of his kids are athletes. Im Dream wouldnt really work. It probably wouldnt fly in the dressing a big supporter of compromising and trying room, either. to let them fit everything in, he says.

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