After a five-year hiatus, Oak Park and River Forest is running the musical theater class again. Following a semester of preparation, the class performed “Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr.” on Dec. 5 at 4 and 7 p.m. 

“Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr.” is a 45-minute show featuring various songs from the popular “Schoolhouse Rock” television series, which ran from 1973 to 1985 on ABC-TV. The musical opened in 1993 in Chicago, at an off-loop venue called Cabaret Voltaire. 

The show is known for its education-themed songs such as “Just a Bill,” “Conjunction Junction” and “Verb: That’s What’s Happening.”

OPRF’s production provided fun for all ages, especially OPRF students. “I felt like it was very family friendly, and it made people want to feel involved in it,” said Preeti Mirmira, a current OPRF junior. 

Musical theater class stopped running after COVID due to uneven placement of students. “I feel like the last couple years we’ve had almost enough kids, but somehow they get filtered into other classes,” said Bayer. “This year I was able to talk to our assistant superintendent and figure out a way where we could pair that up with advanced theater so it could run.”

The musical theater class has no prerequisites and is intended to be an introduction to the world of musicals for any student. 

“I had lots of fun,” said Rowan Neville, current OPRF junior and actor in the musical theater class. “It was a good experience to work with people at different levels of their theater journey.”