The end of senior year is a time of caps and gowns, parties and figuring out your next step.
For four seniors at Animas High School, it’s also a time to put on a show.
Derek Junttonen, Perrin Kileen, Dana Stahl and Julianne Marqua will take the stage at Animas City Theatre on Sunday night for the “Setting Light Concert,” the culmination of their senior projects.
Derek, who created a media company, Passion Project Media, for his project, is also in charge of promotion and advertising for Sunday’s show.
“(It) was going to be a big entertainment production company, with film, photography, music and live events,” he says. “As part of that, Perrin came to me with his music, because for his senior project, he wanted to put on a concert. He came to me because he knew I was up and coming and wanting to be a DJ. We just thought that we could team up and do that.
“It kind of started as Perrin’s idea,” he says. “He thought, ‘How cool would it be for our senior project if we could put on a concert?’”
With the two on board – Derek playing a DJ set and Perrin rapping as HeartbreakP – word quickly got out, and Dana and Julianne’s band RubyBlu, an indie-folk duet, signed on as well.
Once the bands were set, they got to work on creating their set list.
For their project, Dana and Julianne took RubyBlu on tour in California.
Putting the show together was not without its challenges, Derek says. “The hardest part was just figuring everything out; making all the pieces fall into place. It’s just a lot of moving parts.”
Perrin, who was in Milwaukee this semester working on his project’s thesis: How do you make a living as an independent hip-hop artist?, found that being so far away made putting the show together tough.
“We took on a lot, but it was totally worth it,” he says.
The show is a 16-and-older event unless kids are accompanied by a ticket-holding adult. If that adult leaves, the child must leave also, Derick says.
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If you go
What: Setting Light Concert, featuring DJ Derek, HeartbreakP and RubyBlu.
When: 7 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive
Tickets: $5 Animas High School students/$10 general. Available at www.animascitytheatre.com.
More information: This is a 16-and-older show.
