Thanks to the advance publicity of The Times News, my wife and I had the privilege of attending the presentation of “The Hello Girls” by the Tamaqua Area Drama Club. Over the years, we have gone to many high school productions throughout Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties and we wanted to acknowledge what an outstanding performance was put on by the students!

The choreography, the scenery, the costumes, the singing and the acting were first rate! It is a real shame that Tamaqua High School is not included in the Freddy Awards because these students really deserve recognition for this great performance and it ranks among the best high school productions that we have ever seen.

But even more than all of the accolades for the things above, we were also astounded by the way that this production honored not only the women who were the Hello Girls (who have been largely overlooked) but also the local World War 1 soldiers who lost their life in the war. The fact that the student cast interacted with the relatives of the Hello Girls and then did subsequent research, really came across in this show. And the very passionate performances of all of the actors, especially that of the lead, Cecilia Ulicny, as Grace Banker, was really inspiring.

I think that today we worry about the future of our country but seeing the patriotism demonstrated by the students in this show made us so proud and hopeful! We wanted to let you know that the Tamaqua Area Drama Club, the cast, the crew and Director Adriane Drum, should be congratulated for a job well done!

Sincerely,

Brian & Sharon Schell

Cherryville