Hi, Ciara, and thanks for your question.  It happens to be something I've done a lot of thinking about, and have some strong opinions about.

 

It's a balancing act, really, balancing what you BELIEVE in, what you are TRAINED in, and what the expectations of your job are.  But it sounds as if you have an open mind, and that's the first step toward finding that balance.

 

If you don't happen to believe in the importance of the Entertainment Arts, alongside the Musical Arts and the Choral Art, then you have to decide whether you're both capable of and willing to meet the expectations of your present job.  As it happens I do believe in that importance, since the arts of our current culture are just as valid (and usually a whole lot better paying!) as the arts that we've inherited from our past culture.  Not necessarily MORE important, but certainly not LESS important.  But that comes from my own background, which includes about 20 years as a professional entertainer and commercial musician.  But if you believe that it's more valuable to your students to participate in a strictly classical choral experience then a select chamber choir or an a cappella group doing renaissance mass, motet and madrigals might well be the way to go.

 

But if you have not been trained in ANY specific genre, it can be awkward to have to jump into producing good ensembles in that genre, whether it is chamber choir, madrigals (singing REAL madrigals in period costume), doo-wop a cappella, vocal jazz, or show choir.  And that, I'm terribly afraid, is where we at the college level have let our choral music education students down, because you SHOULD have received both instruction and experience in EVERY ONE of those more select genres of music, and not just a one-size-fits-all approach with the subliminal message that all classical music is good and all popular music is bad! 

 

Yes, the kind of well-conceived, well-produced show that a really GOOD show choir can provide does involve all the things you enumerated, and probably a lot more.  So this leaves you with a clear choice:  either try to get by with as little extra work as possible just to meet the expectations of your current job, or dig in and get yourself the background and knowledge that we SHOULD have given you in your college classes.  But keep in mind that if you do that, you will be providing your students with an entree into the part of the musical world in which there are actual paying jobs and careers for those who have the right combination of talent, solid training, and ambition to take the next step up the ladder into entry-level entertainment jobs.  Yes, it's a huge process, simply because it combines high musical standards with theatricality and high entertainment standards.  And yes, it's more than worthwhile if you can accept it as being very important to your students.

 

The world of entertainment is, unfortunately but not entirely unfairly, filled with bad examples of poorly-chosen life styles and the inevitable pitfalls involving booze, drugs, and sex.  You, at the public school level, and we, at the college level, have the opportunity to expose our students to the GOOD side of show business, in a relatively protected and safe environment and under close supervision, and to teach them the necessary basics that will make them valued members of any musical or theatrical company in the future.  I always tried to make my college groups the best basic training possible for the small percentage who DID have what it took to start up the ladder, while making it the best possible and most memorable college experience possible for the majority.  But a large number of that majority have gone on to continue performing in their communities, their churches, in community theater, and to share their talents with others, thanks to the good basic training we gave them.  And what more can a teacher ask for?!!!

All the best,

John