For the performers in Free State High School’s variety show, “Encore 2006,” tonight’s final show will be the culmination of months and maybe years of work.

“Kids start planning what they are going to do in junior high,” choral director and producer Pam Bushouse said. “They really do, I’m not kidding you.”

Juniors and seniors in the choral program will wrap up the three-day show at 7:30 tonight in the school’s auditorium.

The program features 41 acts, 140 performers and all kinds of musical styles, including Broadway show tunes, numbers from the 1940s and pop music. Choral and production assistant Sue Aber leads the band that accompanies performances.

Performances range from solos, like Jason Miles performing “The Keeper of the Stars” as recorded by Tracy Byrd, to large groups, such as the 48-student performance of “Sesame Street” as recorded by The Kids or the 46 students performing “Masquerade” from “The Phantom of the Opera.”

On Friday evening before the show, eager ticket holders waited in two long lines that stretched across the school’s commons area. Meanwhile, backstage, Bushouse led the students through some vocal exercises.

The show started when Free State High opened in 1997, and the musical program followed the Lawrence tradition of a similar show at Lawrence High School called “Showtime.”

Former Lawrence High choral director Lewis Tilford started that show in 1973. Lawrence High students will put on “Showtime” later this month.

At Free State, the students design their own performances. They must audition for a panel of judges in February. The judges selected this year’s acts from about 75 auditions.

“It builds so many skills. It builds confidence on stage. They gain independence because they prepare the stuff on their own this first round,” Bushouse said.

The students then work with the show’s directors – Hilary Morton and Doni Mooberry-Slough, and Philip Denton, a Kansas University intern.

Aside from preparing for the show, the choral students keep a busy schedule throughout the year with several concerts and music festivals.

This will be the final “Encore” that Bushouse produces. She will retire at the end of the school year. Before she started at Free State in 1997, she spent 19 years as the choral director at West Junior High and one year at Lawrence High.

“I’m never not amazed at Lawrence kids – the musicianship, the scholarship,” Bushouse said. “They are just so smart.”

“Encore” is sold out tonight, but program officials will release all unclaimed tickets, which cost $7, at 7:15 p.m.