In an anticipated encore to her past performances on North’s stage, 1986 alumna and Broadway actress Sandra Joseph will make her star-studded return to test the vocal cords and dance moves of North students.

Participation in Joseph’s workshop, which began March 31 and will continue through the week of April 13, was awarded through audition. A concert on May 9 will display the talents of students accepted into the program. The students will be singing popular musical theater songs with Joseph in choreographed numbers.

“I’m looking forward to helping the students and the truth in their songs and personalize their material so that it comes from the heart. It’s the authenticity piece that connects with an audience,” Joseph said via email. “I will be encouraging each performer to bring more of who they are to what they do. I believe that is the key to success, no matter what eld you’re in.”

Sophomore Lolly Duus planned to audition for the opportunity to work with Joseph.

“I’m so excited to work with a Broadway star. Sandra Joseph is so talented. I just love that I will get to watch her perform. I’m most excited to watch her and be able to learn from her performance, and hopefully teaching, and incorporate it into my performing,” Duus said via email.

Drama Club director Sean Kifer spearheaded the workshop and contacted the broadway star. Kifer and Joseph will team up to conduct the classes, but Joseph will remain in the show and perform with the students.

“It was kind of a surprise to the whole club. We didn’t find out about it until earlier this month, and we were all so shocked because we never thought that we would get the opportunity to do this, but it’s kind of just a way for Sandra Joseph to touch her roots with her old school and support our club,” senior and Drama Club president Emily Surzyn said.

Drama Club members are eager to meet and learn some performance skills from Joseph.

“I’m really excited to meet her because she’s such a well known musical theater star, especially because she is a North alumni,” Surzyn said, “We were actually really honored to have her come back, and we’re doing this mini choir concert where she’s going to be singing a lot of her songs.”

While Joseph is a jack of many trades, she is mainly known for her role in the Broadway musical The Phantom of the Opera.

“I played Christine, the female lead in The Phantom of the Opera for 10 years and approximately 1,500 performances. I’m honored to have been named ‘the longest-running leading lady in Broadway’s longest-running show.’ I’m now a keynote speaker, singer and author traveling the country doing concerts and giving presentations and workshops encouraging other people to move through their blocks so they can show up and be seen and heard,” Joseph said.

The event is intended to help improve talent as well as the Drama Club’s budget. According to Surzyn, the Drama Club is hosting the event and collecting the proceeds to fund the club.

Drama Club member Duus plans to do what is necessary for the workshop and has high hopes for a positive outcome.

“I hope (to) just get more experience in my performing and learn more technique. This workshop with Sandra will bene t the North students very much. There are de nitely students who want to go to Broadway, and this will help them grow as singers and actors, and for those who do it for fun, they will have an experience they will remember forever,” Duus said.

Joseph said her years in theater productions at North allowed her to flourish.

“It was such a thrill to get to play leading roles in shows as diverse as Annie, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oliver and A Flea in Her Ear. I’m forever thankful to the teachers, parents and administrators who helped keep the performing arts programs thriving during my time at North,” Joseph said.

Joseph is donating more than just her time. There’s a possibility she’ll help create a scholarship for the students she would be working with.

“She has such an amazing voice, and she’s starting a scholarship for our club to award seniors that are going into musical theater in college. It’ll be really cool to have that from her and get her involved in our school,” Surzyn said.