OGDENSBURG -- With the winter blues coming our way, what better way can you brighten your day? The answer is to head to Ogdensburg Free Academy for a performance of Footloose, based on the 1987 movie starring Kevin Bacon that was also made into a Broadway musical.

A cast and crew of more than 60 OFA students are preparing for the two performances that will take place at Ogdensburg.

Directed by Sara Pabis and choreographed by Angela Conzone-Dwyer, the show will feature the classic songs you might have heard on the radio, watched on the movie screen, or seen in the theatre.

Ren McCormack (Andrew Smith) is an ordinary teenager who enjoys dancing off his stresses. Ren and his mother, Ethel (Haley Burlamachi) are moving to a small town in the middle of nowhere named Beaumont, due to financial pressures brought on by his father’s abandonment.

Ren’s Aunt Lulu and Uncle Wes (Alex Pinkerton and Tanner Williams) offer them a place to stay.

Once there, Ren and Ethel attend church and get their first glimpse of Shaw Moore (Gerard Powers), a conservative minister who is a big authority figure in the town. His sermons lambast the evils of “rock and roll music,” and he defends his position that public dancing is forbidden.

Shaw lives with his wife Vi (Jillian LeBel) and their rebellious daughter Ariel (Rylee Bresett). Ariel’s caustic relationship with local yokel Chuck Cranston (Simeun Ademola-Sadipe) and her attraction to new arrival Ren causes a rift in the Moore family.

The town is further divided when Ren leads a student movement to hold a dance in Beaumont. Ren’s best friend Willard Hewitt (Anton Skamperle) and Ariel’s entourage of Rusty (Sloane Ryan), Wendy Jo (Hailey Weber) and Urleen (Cadence Payne) join the fight to bring dancing back to Beaumont.

Friendships and romances will develop in the course of the play, and reconciliation between family members will bring the story to a satisfying end, said a school press release.

The Ogdensburg Free Academy Music Department will present their annual musical in the George Hall Auditorium on Friday evening, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m., and again on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 14 at 1 p.m.

The cost will be $7 for adults and $5 for children and senior citizens.