E.N.D. student run musical dedicated to beloved St. Lucie Co. Art Teacher
More than 40 local teenagers have spent the past 8 weeks building confidence, leadership, teamwork, and life skills through the arts. Joining me now is Sydney Dupree, performing arts director and student who is taking part in this musical. We have with us Adriana Burney. Thanks ladies so much for being here with us this morning, and we’re talking about *** musical that’s put on by the students, but first, let’s start with the organization. It’s called End. What does it stand? For yes, end it it stands for everybody’s not doing it, and we’re an arts program specifically for middle and high school students and um sorry, go ahead so it can be anything from, um, talking back to your parents, gang violence, um, any peer pressure, bullying, teen pregnancy, and so we provide positive alternatives using visual and performing arts and in the summer that’s the show, the musical, to kind of give them something else to do and give them an environment of peers who are like minded so it’s. Called the summer arts experience. So what exactly goes into that? Yes, uh, great question. Um, field trips we have intramural sports, college and career, um, financial literacy. They learn *** lot of things and then they have the show which is basically an 8 week, um, long process to where they’re working towards on the last day of their camp they’re performing, um, their show. So, um, choreography, acting, singing, they learn all those things as well. Adriana, you are taking part. In the show, tell us about your very important role and it’s it’s *** Little Mermaid. So I did receive the role of Ariel. I got when I got the role I was very happy, very excited. So so far it’s been pretty good, everything moving pretty smoothly, and you can see her hair. She said that she took pictures yesterday for the show. So yes, very in character right now. Adriana, is it *** is it *** movie that you saw growing up? Yes. Yes it is so that also like it helps because I already know the story I know the song and the songs yes so um it’s just been very great and what has been outside of the performance aspect of it? What have you learned personally and being *** part of this personally just how to you know connect with my peers how to know like when to play my role and also to just be myself and. Um, connect and have teamwork and all those things that go into it and, and Sydney, for other students that are taking part, what’s some of the feedback that you hear from them? Mm, I think I like to hear that they surprise themselves in *** way, um, so some of them who weren’t comfortable singing or like talking in front of people are like, no, I don’t do public speaking, and now they’re, you know, out in the show and they have solos and they’re doing. So many things, um, so that’s always nice to see and when they, um, kind of impress themselves and do something that they didn’t know they could do, yeah, that’s wonderful, um, you know we had ***, we had *** tragedy in, in Fort Pierce recently, um, about 10 days ago actually where *** beloved Saint Lucie County teacher was tragically killed, um, and you guys have *** very special dedication, um, in this show for. Mr. Mr. Barnes, tell us about it. Um, Mr. Barnes was *** part of our ended family, you know, he taught art, um, at our after school program for the past 2 years, and then in the summers he would help with our set design, so he did the Camp Rock one, you know, he was, you know, making tables and benches and all these different things to make it look like *** summer camp, and this year, you know, making coral reefs and, um. Jellyfish, you know, and all these different really cool props, and he was literally in the midst of doing that, um, when he passed, so it was *** shock to all of us, um, for the staff and for the students we’re just trying to find *** way to navigate it. Um, but us all being *** family, we decided to dedicate the show to him and do it in his honor, um, to kind of pay our respects and do the set design justice that he worked so hard on. Yeah, that’s beautiful. So, so I mean *** part of him will be there with you guys next Friday night, um, celebrating this, this, this musical with all of the design that he put into it. We spoke to some people who knew Mr. Barnes and they all talked about his smile and his and his. Love for art. Exactly. He was so talented, incredibly talented, and um I remember I was there for his interview feeling like he was just so overqualified, but um, the fact that he wanna give back and, you know, display his talents in this way is just really amazing. Yeah, *** beautiful way to honor him. OK, so the show is Friday, *** week from today, July 31st in Fort Pierce. Give us the details. Yes, July 31st tickets are $15 and we have *** 2:00 p.m. show and *** 77. p.m. show you can go on end at box office.lodes.com to get tickets, so it’s E N D I T box office. Perfect. And that website that City just gave you is on our website as well, WPBF.com, so we’ve made it easy for you. Just go there, hit the click it button and all the information for the show, including tickets you can find right there. Thank you ladies so much. Good luck next Friday at the show. We appreciate you being here. All right, thank you so much, of course.
E.N.D. student run musical dedicated to beloved St. Lucie Co. Art Teacher
Updated: 9:27 AM EDT Jul 17, 2026
The organization, E.N.D. which stands for Everybody’s Not Doing It, has spent the summer working with more than 40 teenagers through its Teen Arts-Based Summer Experience to produce a produce a full-scale musical. Stay up to date: The latest headlines and weather from WPBF 25This year’s show is even more special because it is dedicated to a beloved St. Lucie County art teacher, Mr. Andre Barnes who was killed on July 7th. He taught at West Gate K-8 School and then most recently at Samuel S Gaines Academy. Click here for more information, including the show performance on July 31 in Ft. Pierce of Disney’s The Little Mermaid Jr. Get the latest weather updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it here.
The organization, E.N.D. which stands for Everybody’s Not Doing It, has spent the summer working with more than 40 teenagers through its Teen Arts-Based Summer Experience to produce a produce a full-scale musical.
Stay up to date: The latest headlines and weather from WPBF 25
This year’s show is even more special because it is dedicated to a beloved St. Lucie County art teacher, Mr. Andre Barnes who was killed on July 7th. He taught at West Gate K-8 School and then most recently at Samuel S Gaines Academy.
Click here for more information, including the show performance on July 31 in Ft. Pierce of Disney’s The Little Mermaid Jr.
Get the latest weather updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it here.