This weekend’s Harwood Alumni Café features eight prolific alumni in a fundraiser for the music department’s Harwood Auditorium Revitalization Project (HARP). This Saturday, March 14, the Harwood Music Department will be hosting an alumni cabaret, bringing together performers from Harwood’s past to fundraise for the auditorium’s future.
The cabaret––a form of theatrical performance characterized by an ensemble of performers––will feature alumni (with graduation years ranging from 1995 to 2025) each singing a musical theater song, creating what organizer Stefanie Weigand called “30 years of Harwood musical memories all on stage together.”
Those performers include Kim Anderson, class of 2001; Elsie Dawn, class of 2025; Jesse Hawkes, class of 1995; Elizah Hill, class of 2014; Malayna Knox, class of 2015; Nina Sklar, class of 2016; Wanda Sullivan, class of 2022; and Francesca Terenzini, class of 2000. Each will sing their own song, and then all eight will come together for a performance of “Keep Marching” from Suffs, a Tony award-winning Broadway musical by fellow alumna Shaina Taub (who could not attend the cabaret due to preparations for her return to Ragtime on Broadway).
Fellow alumna Grace Potter was also unavailable; she plays a show in Florida this weekend. “We are fortunate to have both local and out of town musicians who will be there on Saturday, as well as those alumni who led other HARP fundraiser events earlier this year,” said Weigand.
HARP is a multi-phase project, which is scheduled to last several years, aims to modernize the auditorium, allowing it to handle modern technology and performances, and bring the space and structures up to code. According to the project’s website, the auditorium “has not been substantially renovated since 1997” and the goal of the fundraiser––which will raise money through further community events––is to “create a lasting legacy” for the school, “supporting generations of students in their artistic and personal growth.”
The first phase accounts for about $500,000 in repairs and addresses some of the most pressing issues, including replacing the rigging above the stage and updating the electrical system to bring them up to code. The department is aiming to raise the money for this phase by summer 2027 so that repairs can be completed before the start of the 2027-2028 school year.
The second phase accounts for about $400,000 in repairs and focuses on replacing the light system, which, by the department’s estimates, has not been updated in 50 years. The project estimates that these repairs will occur within the next five years.
The third phase, which is farther down the line, accounts for $200,000-$400,000 in repairs dedicated to upgrading the auditorium’s sound system and providing audio-assisted technology. For more details on the project, its timeline, and the repairs, or to make a donation, visit its website at harpvt.org (http://harpvt.org/).
Stefanie Weigand, a Harwood alumna and the school’s former chorus teacher, is organizing the alumni cabaret, and she credits her history with the school as “a big reason” behind accepting the offer to help: “This space deserves to be restored and maintained as a hub for the student body and the community at large. We can’t wait to celebrate together this weekend…it feels like home, in a lot of ways.”
Current music teacher Molly Desrochers estimates that a project like this has been on the table since last spring, but Weigand was brought in earlier this year. This is a busy time of year for the music department, with music festivals and increasing preparations for the spring musical, so finding available alumni was challenging. “Finding a free weekend was challenging enough as it is,” said Weigand, “and then booking alumni who are available and able to travel to us on a Saturday night was just as much of a challenge.”
She worked together with the music department to search for performers, posting notices in the Waterbury Roundabout and on social media, and brought together the eight alumni.
The show begins at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday and will run for about an hour, and will also include a preview performance of the spring musical, Hadestown, performed by Aiden Heath (Orpheus) and Eireann McDonough (Eurydice). Tickets are by donation at the door.