At James Logan, Theater is one of the few programs where students can express themselves in ways that aren’t restricted by traditional school rules and norms. However, this year, the James Logan performing arts program will be more limited than previous years for reasons that can be traced all the way back to the strike.
News spread quickly that the fall musical would most likely be this year, possibly along with multiple other events that require the theater. Due to the strike, one of the positions that was removed was the position of the previous theater manager. He managed the theater not only for the school but for outside groups who rented the theater. Without him, no one else really knew how to use the theater. Instead of letting the theater get mismanaged by people attempting to use it, the district decided that the best thing to do would be to shut the theater down entirely. The theater director, Robert Richardson, has inquired about the choir teacher supervising the use of the theater, but even that idea was rejected by the district. “It’s not possible,” Richardson said when asked about the fall musical. “We will not be doing the fall musical this year.”
“[Theater] helps us grow creatively,” says enthusiastic performing arts student, Junior Salvador Suarez. “The musical and the play, because I want to be an actor in the future, helped me develop the skills I need to do what I want to do in the future. Without that, it’s stunting the way I grow in that area.” Suarez’s views are shared by most other performing arts students. They all felt that the lack of any show at all was going to limit them from growing as performers.
After multiple seemingly empty promises from the district that they were going to look into ways to allow the use of the theater once again, performing arts students and teachers alike began to lose hope.
“In order for us to do our musical, I need to have a place definitively to do that musical because we have to design a set, we have to do costumes, casting, rehearse for that space, the whole bit,” Richardson said. Without a solid answer from the district, they weren’t sure if the fall musical was going to be possible.
However, on September 17th the district gave the school the okay to use the theater, but at that point, it was too late to plan something as elaborate as a musical. They simply wouldn’t have enough time. Still, the show must go on.
In lieu of a musical, a fall play will be put on. Instead of having one big show, they plan to do two or three smaller shows in one evening targeted towards different age groups. Although not as elaborate as a musical, it still gave a chance for students to perform and that alone, was enough. Richardson says a spring musical might even be possible with enough work and luck.
