Summer Office Hours: Tuesday – Thursdays 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM (Appointments by Request)
Office hours: Mon-Thu 7:45 AM-4:00 PM | Fri 7:45 AM-2:00 PM
(916) 481-2300
Summer Office Hours: Tuesday – Thursdays 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM (Appointments by Request)
Office hours: Mon-Thu 7:45 AM-4:00 PM | Fri 7:45 AM-2:00 PM
(916) 481-2300
SAA students take the stage several times in one week. The elementary school performs Freddie the Frog and the Jungle Jazz and middle school with Seussical Jr. that evening. Multiple shows, two casts, one very full week of performing arts. Research consistently links student participation in the performing arts to stronger academic engagement, communication skills, and confidence. You can see why we keep investing in this program.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Elementary Performance | Freddie the Frog and the Jungle Jazz |
| Middle School Performance | Seussical Jr. |
| Performance Date | April 21, 2026 |
| Director | Ms. Nina Negretti |
| Music Support | Mrs. Vanessa Piersanti, Mr. Ivan Rachath |
| AV and Streaming | Todd Comm (volunteer) |
Freddie the Frog and his friend Eli are on their way to the Island of Jungle Jazz to visit their friend Babs. When they get there, the musicians are in the middle of a full-blown argument. The trumpets want the solo. So do the trombones. The clarinets have opinions too. Everyone is convinced their instrument is the best. Nobody is listening.
The show works its way toward collective improvisation, the idea that every instrument is better when it plays with the others instead of over them. It is a simple idea. It lands hard, especially coming from a stage full of elementary students who are learning exactly that in real time.
Elementary vice-principal Kat Schroer says it plainly before the show starts “The differences in our friendships, in the people around us, are not a problem. They are what makes the music worth hearing.”
The production features live accompaniment from a three-piece jazz band made up of SAA staff. Ivan Rachath on piano, Andres Borrero on drums, and Mark Janke on bass. For a show about the joy of playing together, it fits.
If you know Dr. Seuss, you know the characters. Seussical Jr. takes all of them and puts them in the same story. The Cat in the Hat narrates. Horton the Elephant hears a tiny voice coming from a speck of dust and discovers an entire civilization floating helplessly through space. The Whos need somewhere safe to land. Horton decides he is going to be that for them, even when no one believes the speck exists, even when the Sour Kangaroo makes it her personal mission to prove he has lost his mind, and even when everything goes sideways.
JoJo, the mayor’s son, has an imagination so big it keeps getting him suspended from school. He pictures rivers running beneath the bathtub, fish swimming up through the pipes, underground highways stretching under everything. Nobody around him sees it. When he finally reaches Horton across the gap between their worlds, they recognize each other immediately.
Gertrude McFuzz has loved Horton quietly for years. She has one tail feather and is certain that is the problem. She gets pills from a doctor to grow her tail longer. It does not go the way she planned. Meanwhile Horton is sitting on an egg for Mayzie La Bird, a spectacular bird who promised to be back in an hour and is currently in Palm Beach.
Middle school vice-principal Stephanie Ferguson introduced the show by walking the audience through all of it, and she is clearly having a great time doing it. She has loved this musical for years and it shows. The themes she points to, believing in what you cannot prove, standing up for people no one else sees, doing what you said you would do, are a natural fit for middle schoolers. Both to perform and to sit with.
The sets are worth mentioning. Fourth graders contribute visual elements to the production. A Friday elective crafting class, with real contributions from eighth graders, builds the sets that fill the stage. Against a full black backdrop, they pop.
Choreography is handled by the MS Drama Class. Audio, visual, and lighting are managed by Andres Borrero, Todd Comm, Matthew Jakobsons, Connor Piersanti, and Vanessa Piersanti. Set and stage design are led by Liesl Ferguson, Everest Watts-Kraus, Ellie Situmorang, Alice Henda, Morris Dolermente, and SAA’s elementary teachers. Seussical Jr. is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International.
Ms. Nina Negretti directs both productions, with music support from Mrs. Vanessa Piersanti and Mr. Ivan Rachath. Volunteer Todd Comm handles AV and live streaming for both shows so families who cannot make it in person can still watch.
Bravo to everyone who made this day happen.
This spring also includes a high school production of Les Misérables. Elementary, middle school, and high school all on stage in the same season. That does not happen at every school.
If you want to see what student life looks like at Sacramento Adventist Academy, learn more about enrollment or schedule a visit.
