BURBANK, Calif. — It may be August but it’s prom season at the Ahmanson Theatre. The national tour of the musical “The Prom” features several performers who went to high school and their own proms in SoCal. 

Marie Gutierrez was already an accomplished dancer when she arrived at John Burroughs High School in Burbank and joined the school’s award-winning vocal music association. 

After graduating, she continued to work with the JBHS VMA as a choreographer. She credits the program — and the teachers who run it — with preparing her for a career as a musical theater performer. She recently went back to the school for a reunion with choral director Brendan Jennings.

“He really taught me a lot of what it means to be a professional,” she said of her former teacher and later colleague, “not just as a performer but as a leader and as someone who is influential in students’ lives.”

Gutierrez calls performing at the Ahmanson “a bucket list dream come true.”

“The Prom” runs through Sept. 11.