“Beat it, but you wanna be bad. Just beat it (beat it), beat it (beat it).” As the song continued, students danced across the stage hearing the stomping feet and yelling from the students that filled the auditorium seats. All of them were ecstatic over the performers moonwalking on stage. The glistening gloves stood out, catching the audience's attention. One of the gloves adorned the hand of 7th grader Mark McEntire.  

In the fall of ‘83, Charlie Wells, the Highlands High School choir director at the time, orchestrated a performance to enhance an assembly and had students on stage lip-syncing and dancing to the hit song “Beat It” by Michael Jackson. McEntire was one of the performers who wore a singular glove on their hands to replicate Jackson's famous habit of only wearing one glove to camouflage his developing vitiligo.  

“Yeah, Michael Jackson only wore the one glove,” McEntire stated. 

 Even from age 7, McEntire loved the arts. Starting in his elementary school choir, McEntire was engaged in singing and dancing.  McEntire’s love for the arts carried through his senior year at Highlands. He was heavily influenced by his dynamic church choir director, Charlie Wells, to join the Highlands School show choir, Guys-and-Dolls.  

“It was fun to just transition from grade school to middle and high school and have that contact. Mr. Wells encouraged me to do it.” 

McEntire later joined the Highlanders, the chorus for Highlands, and participated in musicals. Although musicals were only performed every other year, he was still involved in Oklahoma, South Pacific, and others. He may not have been heavily involved in each performance, but he certainly played a role in making these shows the best they could be.  

“We had to make those gloves,” McEntire explains.  

The Michael Jackson gloves created a surplus of memories for the choral students, starting from the making of the gloves. The performers had to supply their gloves and apply sequins. People had to take time out of their day to sew these gloves to create a wonderful performance for the school. Each entertainer received one glove and they all had matching, sparkling outfits. These outfits were worn for every performance.  

Being in the theater program created many opportunities and memories for McEntire. One of the best memories from his experience was from his trip to Washington, D.C.  during his sophomore year.  

“We got to go and perform at the White House for a Christmas party. That was phenomenal,” McEntire said. This experience was truly life changing for McEntire. It led to an increase in friendships and confidence.  

McEntire also enjoyed his role in Highlands’ production of South Pacific. Despite his minor role, McEntire enjoyed working with high school students at a young age.  

McEntire said: “As a seventh grader, I had a small role in South Pacific which was a musical we put on. So that was pretty neat to be a 7th grader working with high school kids.” 

Not only did McEntire participate in theater, but he was heavily involved in soccer and other clubs. McEntire did admit that he preferred soccer over theater. 

“By far soccer.”  

However, he still appreciated the arts and dedicated his time to becoming involved. The donation of the Michael Jackson glove shines a light on the theater program at Highlands in the late 80’s. Seeing the progress from 40 years ago to now is astonishing. All the students involved in the program back then, (including Mark and friends, Greg Patton, Troy Hitch) strengthened the program for students today. Being able to see the growth and development of the theater program, along with other clubs, shows the evolution of involvement students have at Highlands.  

“Back in the day when we had 152 in our graduating class, we had a lot of opportunities to get involved in things that maybe you wouldn't if you were in a huge school,” McEntire said.

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