Mr. MHS moved to fall, musical moved to spring

Kris Long, Opinions Editor

The consistently highly-anticipated Mr. MHS pageant has been moved from its usual winter performance time to the fall. 

Mr. MHS is now scheduled to take place on Nov. 7 in Rezac. The week of Nov. 4-8 is one of the few weeks in the year that no other major events are occurring as per the Kansas State High School Activities Association. 

According to Lexi Feather, the Student Council officer in charge of Mr. MHS, putting Mr. MHS on a ‘dead week’ is intended to bring more students to the event. Along with that, students who are involved in winter sports and other activities whose events would get in the way of practicing or performing can now enter the competition. Because of the move the applications will be available Sept. 26 and due Oct. 11. Auditions will be held on Oct. 16.

“[Students wishing to perform] have to turn in the application and… [then] bring it before a panel of judges from Student Council,” Feather said. “We just make sure that it’s appropriate and that they [can] perform it before an audience.”

The change of date was made when the Performing Arts Department asked to move the musical to the spring so they could work on building the set over winter break. 

In previous years, students involved with Mr. MHS have had to share a stage with spring play practices, meaning their practices went until late at night. Moving it to the fall means they no longer have to share the stage during the week it takes to prepare. 

Mr. MHS is a long-time tradition at Manhattan High. Senior and junior boys are allowed to perform at a talent show meet beauty pagent like event with multiple categories before an audience of high school students and parents. At the end of the show, a panel of judges chooses the school year’s Mr. MHS. 

According to StuCo sponsor Leslie Campbell, Mr MHS is the only event that is 100 percent student run. Students involved in three separate clubs including technical support from the theatre department work together to put on the show every year, along with those performing. “Mr. MHS offers some students the opportunity to perform that they otherwise wouldn’t have,” Campbell said. “While we often overlap with performing arts students, that isn’t always the case. I love getting those students that are not used to being in front of an audience, they are often the funniest and most ‘out of the box’ performances.”