APA Theatre Guild Fundraiser and Dinner Show
APA Studio Theater (Black Box)

It’s a big evening for the nervous, plain librarian Cinnamon Schmidt. She has invited her fiancé Hobart over for dinner so their mothers can meet. Her friend Dee Dee arrives to see if Cinnamon needs any help, only to find out that Cinnamon has witnessed a bank robbery! Dee Dee is shocked, but Cinnamon doesn’t want her mother to find out. What Cinnamon doesn't know is that her mother has been winning money at the racetrack and signing Cinnamon’s name on the receipts. Joe, a federal agent, arrives to inquire about the unpaid taxes on the gambling cash, only to get word of the bank robbery. Joe thinks Dee Dee is Cinnamon, which begins an evening of mistaken identities and confusion. Soon, the bank robber’s lewd lady friend turns up to warn Cinnamon that the robber is coming to kill her. When the robber arrives, things really kick into high gear—including an out-of-control vacuum cleaner and more fast-paced dialogue in this wildly funny farce!

Presented through special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.

Speculated by many to be the greatest American musical of all time, Gypsy tells the story of the dreams and efforts of one hungry, powerhouse of a woman to get her two daughters into show business. Based on the 1957 memoirs of dancer Gypsy Rose Lee, the musical focuses on the story of Gypsy’s mother, Rose, and her efforts to raise two daughters to perform onstage in the 1920s Vaudeville circuit. Solidifying Ethel Merman’s Broadway Career, and with some of the most beloved songs in Musical Theater History - “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “Some People,” and “Let Me Entertain You” - Gypsy is considered one of the crowning achievements of the 20th century's conventional musical theatre art form.

Based upon Gypsy: The Memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee
Music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Arthur Laurents

MMET Department Fundraiser and Show
First Christian Church of Huntington Beach

In this fifth and final installment of a series celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Beatles, we will look at every song they wrote and recorded in 1969. Never ones to rest on their laurels, even in the throes of breakup, the Beatles kept working on new material. They spent nearly every day of January 1969 amassing a pile of media that would eventually become the album and film Let It Be. The project culminated in their last live performance on the rooftop of their office building. A few months later they reconvened in EMI studios, working harder than ever before to create what they knew to be their swan song. They named the album after the studio - Abbey Road.

Fall Play

Fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone is phenomenal at math, but has a lot more difficulty in dealing with people. He would rather be alone since he finds people confusing and dislikes being touched. Late one evening, he discovers his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, has been murdered. Christopher sets out to solve the mystery even though his father has forbidden it. Seen though Christopher’s video-game-like view of the world, this funny and moving story leads him to a horrifying revelation that changes his world forever. Mark Haddon’s award-winning novel inspires this play about difference, being an outsider, and seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way.

A drama based on the novel by Mark Haddon, adapted by Simon Stephens
Presented through special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service

Holiday Celebration Show Presented by APA Orchestra Department
Please bring a new, unwrapped toy for our annual Toys for Tots Drive!

HO! HO! HO! Plan to spend a little time away from the modern-day holiday grind as the APA Orchestra Department presents their annual celebration of winter-holiday cheer. In addition to the festive sounds of the APA Orchestra, the evening will feature special guest performances by APA's Musical Theatre Department, Music Media and Entertainment Technology Department (MMET), Surf City Singers, and the Huntington Beach High School Band and Color Guard. We may not have snow and mistletoe, but there will be plenty of joy in this holiday show. Come start a new family tradition with your musical friends at APA!

Musical Theatre Department Fundraiser and Show
APA Studio Theater (Black Box)

The rare instance of a musical thriller, Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s chilling, suspenseful, heart-pounding masterpiece of murderous barber-ism and culinary crime tells the infamous tale of the unjustly exiled barber who returns to 19th-century London seeking revenge against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. His thirst for blood soon expands to include his unfortunate customers, and the resourceful proprietress of the pie shop downstairs soon has the people of London lining up in droves with her mysterious new meat pie recipe. Sophisticated, macabre, visceral and uncompromising, Sweeney Todd nevertheless has a great sense of fun, mixing intense drama with howlingly funny moments of dark humor: audiences find themselves laughing hysterically one moment and gasping in surprise the next.

Based upon Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Christopher Bond
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler

Dance Concert

The APA Dance Department invites you to experience the past, present, and future of movement at their faculty-choreographed dance concert Fusion 2020. APA’s talented dancers bring to life the vision of the Academy’s dance mentors as they display a dizzying blend of works covering the complete spectrum of dance. The evening will be a fusion of hip-hop, jazz, ballet, tap, and modern dance styles, so join us in celebrating movement in its infinite form as our esteemed faculty create unique works that showcase APA’s unrivaled talent. Whether you are an experienced dance connoisseur or new to the dance world, Fusion 2020 will move you.

Contemporary Rock Concert

Playlist is the purest distillation of our purpose and mission at APA. It is a souped-up support vehicle that transports students to creative places they could never reach on their own. It’s a big rock & roll festival show full of our students’ latest creative work in original music and film, paired with the best in contemporary music. Since Playlist always seems to land on Valentine’s Day, we thought to lean into that as a theme. So bring your sweetie to see what the MMET kids have concocted in the eighth iteration of this classic concert. It will be exciting, full of discovery and hope, and probably equal measures of pleasure and pain...just like love.