During show choir’s first competition of the year in Pleasant Hill, MO, just outside of Kansas City, where they competed against 30 other show choirs in the Midwest, the fire alarm went off midway through their performance.

Even with the interruption, the group didn’t stop performing their set. Gabby Mancuso, junior, said the judges were thoroughly impressed they didn’t stop from the distraction.

“We had to stop singing and everyone had to evacuate the building,” Mancuso said. “When we came back we kind of felt frazzled so we ended up not making the finals.”

The top six out of 30 advanced on to the finals. Center Stage brought home seventh place, just missing the cut-off for finals.

“I’m proud of how we pulled through the craziness,” Mancuso said.

Jason Winter, show choir director, said he is also proud of this particular group of kids.

“This group is self-motivated and they perform because they liked performing,” Winter said. “We have a very diverse group of kids who are all strong singers and performers.”

The songs that made up the set were “Jet Lags”, “Black Cat”, “Just A Kiss”, “Higher”, and “My Girl’s Ex-boyfriend”. Mancuso took on the solo in “Higher”.

“I felt all the solos went well,” Mancuso said. “I was nervous before, but once the adrenaline kicked in it was fine.”

Richard Klos, sophomore, also sang a solo in “My Girl’s Ex-boyfriend.” Since this is his first year being a part of the show choir, he said he felt really nervous to perform in front of an audience and judges.

“I like how in show choir you can compete against others,” Klos said. “Singing and dancing are my two favorite things.”

Before the competition, Winter and members of the choir didn’t know what to expect. Winter said he knew that no matter what place they would receive, he would be proud of their performance.

The group had lots of preparation for the big day. They had rehearsals two weeks prior to Saturday and participated in a summer camp to get ready for competition-type scenarios.

“I felt like we made a lot of progress the past two weeks,” Mancuso said. “We have two competitions left which we are very confident about.”