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They composed the music using a keyboard and a computer monitor and edited the script in a chat room. They choreographed a dance and learned the theme song using video conferencing and worked out the kinks over e-mail.

For the past seven months nearly 100 students from four high schools in three states have been using the tools of technology to create what is believed to be the first musical produced over the Internet.

And tonight, what was virtual reality for the greater part of the school year will become an actuality when “Changing Terms” is performed live at Redondo Union High School during a visit by the National School Boards Assn. to see how the school utilizes technology in education. The hourlong show begins at 8 p.m. and is open to the public.

“We’ve taken a lot of personal pride in this project,” said Casey Garritano, a Redondo Union student who helped write the script. “Those are our words and our songs up there. It’s really cool to hear people speaking and singing the words we wrote.”

Created by students from Plano, Texas, Naperville, Ill., Union City, Calif., and Redondo Beach, “Changing Terms” is about leaving high school for college. The play is centered on the first semester of college and unfolds as a series of vignettes with themes such as alcoholism, adoption, date rape and relationships.

Writers from each school wrote independent segments for their classmates to perform in addition to composing the music. Then they teamed up with writers from the other schools to combine the vignettes so the four-act play would gel.

Students began working on the musical in September, communicating over speaker phones and eventually moving to the Internet. In recent months they have held rehearsals by video conferencing and on Sunday when the out-of-town cast arrived, the scenes were put together under the direction of local actor-playwright-director Fred Sanders.

Throughout the week the cast--which is staying in the homes of Redondo Beach students--has been rehearsing around the clock. But in addition to dealing with the costume changes and stage blocking, the students are having to learn one another’s names.

“It’s really weird, when you see someone it’s like, ‘Hey you were the guy who always sat at the back of the room,”’ said Luke Schmitt, a senior from Naperville, referring to the video conferencing sessions. “It’s like we know these people, but we’re just meeting them.”

That was exactly what officials in the Redondo Beach Unified School District had envisioned. Redondo Beach has long been a leader in educational technology and last summer Supt. Beverly Rohrer conceived the idea for the project as a way of integrating the arts and technology while exposing Redondo Beach students to their peers at other schools.

The district invited the three other schools, which also have strong technology programs, and each district committed to funding the project in addition to finding corporate sponsors. District officials said they haven’t decided whether to repeat the endeavor next year, but said the learning experience the students have had has certainly made that a possibility.

“This has been a very unique opportunity for the students,” said Pat Hosken, director of technology for Redondo Union. “They’ve been able to carry an idea to a performance and meet people of all different cultures. . . . The benefits they’ve had have been tremendous.”