Justin-Siena High School students will be dodging the raindrops onstage during performances of “Singin’ In The Rain,” their fall musical production, which opens Thursday.

“Singin’ In The Rain,” ranked by the American Film Institute as the No. 1 movie musical of all time, catapulted dancer Gene Kelly into the company of Hollywood’s greats.

Director Matthew Teague-Miller said, “The tap-style choreography makes this show unlike anything we have done for some time. The technical challenges of making it rain and integrating silent movie footage into the show are firsts for our program.”

Alumna Lisa Clark-Schmeling, Justin-Siena’s dance teacher and choreographer of Justin-Siena musicals for the past three years, added that the concept is to “pay homage to the great MGM-style movie musical and almost pull it out of the screen and onto the stage.”

At the same time, she said, “This show has to be completely original and perfect in its own way. We are working very hard and getting the balance between tribute and originality just right.”

Clark-Schmeling, winner of several National Youth Theatre Awards for her choreography, joins her daughter, Delaney, student winner of a 2008 National Youth Theatre Award for Outstanding Choreography in “West Side Story,” and two-time student award winner, Jeffrey Gerlomes, in this production. Jeffrey won National Youth Theatre awards for his work in “Damn Yankees” in 2008 and “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” in 2009. Teague-Miller won the Outstanding Direction award for “Damn Yankees.”

Many of the students in this production also performed in “Damn Yankees,” and in 2009’s “Les Miserables,” which garnered a nomination for the ensemble cast. Nearly 300 productions compete in the National Youth Theatre Awards judging pool, including performing arts high schools, an international thespian festival, as well as professional productions.

If you go

• What: ‘Singin’ in the Rain’

• Where: Justin-Siena High School

• When: Nov. 6, 13, 14, 8 p.m.

Nov. 8, 14 and 15, 2 pm.

Nov. 12, 7 p.m.

• Tickets: are $14 students and seniors, $20 general; Director’s gala, Nov. 7, 6:30 p.m., $50

• Reservations: 255-0950 ext. 585, or www.justin-siena.org.