A recap of the auditorium’s modern and classic history from 1939-2026

Since 1939, the VHS auditorium has been located on campus at the corner of Poli and Catalina Street where it houses award-winning musicians and dancers from the VHS music, drama and dance departments. The outer architecture depicts a sculpture of a goddess holding the torch of learning Architect Harold Burkett used a Streamline Moderne style of architecture to design the auditorium which holds about 1,200 audience members.Throughout the years it has lived through WWII bond rallies to present day arts.

More recently, the auditorium has seen past performances at VHS drama department including productions such as The Addams Family in 2023, Mamma Mia in 2019 and Beauty and the Beast. These productions included VHS alumni Sinthia Cardenas and Marissa Stadtmiller. Viewers have said, “10/10 show,” “better than the original” and “The singing and dancing were top notch and we loved it” on the VHS drama instagram comments.

Jagger Smith ‘26 said, “My favorite part of being in drama is being able to learn how to be a different person or character and being able to do it with other people that truly care about acting or performing. I find acting as someone else to be very interesting even if it may be challenging but that is the fun of it.”

Historically, the ghost story of “Toby” originated from this VHS auditorium. Toby, said to be a passionate musical student of VHS was said to have mysteriously died and since has been haunting the auditorium and its students. The story that has continuously been told by students in drama and music from upper to lower classman to keep his love and legacy in the VHS department alive. Students have allegedly seen Toby’s moment in falling props, changing in lighting and unknown movements and sounds.   

Hudson Ham ‘26 said, “I think everyone in drama has heard of Toby at this point. A senior from a few years back told me that while they were locking up the classroom one night, they heard Toby calling their name from the second floor. But when they went to check, nobody was there. If he is real, he seems pretty harmless to me.”

In 2013, the auditorium hosted the first annual benefit concert for the VHS music department, three years after director Paul Hunt arrived at VHS. Additionally, the department has a history of hosting winter concerts which is seen to date back to 1979. In 2023, VHS musicians came together to hold the first annual holiday concert consisting of songs such as “The Grinch” and “All I Want for Christmas is You” And in 2024, the department welcomed globally renowned composer and conductor, Oscar Narvaro to hear some of his own work being played by VHS ensembles. 

Fiona Farrell ‘27, “My favorite part about the holiday concert is that we get to dress up in holiday attire and it brings everyone together into a more jolly mood and it makes people happier when practicing.”

Although you are more likely to see VHS dance and hip hop teams performing at school sports events and rallies since their founding in the early 2000’s, they have also made several appearances on the VHS auditorium stage. Over the years they have held dance concerts in the auditorium such as Dancing with the Cougars in 2024, Dancing though the Decades in 2023, and A Night in Hollywood in 2024, where they showcase the departments teams and classes for the community to see. 

Jocelyn Escalante ‘26,  “Being in the auditorium it’s different because we dont usually have wifi so we bond with each other more. We are also able to work with drama and tech crew more. Logan and Ms. Smith help with lights and sound to make things look good, and that’s the biggest thing that’s different from performing at sporting events. We get to show our creative side, make it our own and we get to choose our backdrops, lights and our timing for things to be our own rather than someone telling us you only have two minutes to perform this.”