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Feature In 2010, they will get to take 18 students to the Edinburgh Festival, their fourth invitation there since 1998. They’ve also received honors from the Kennedy Center and the Educational Theatre Association Hall of Fame. Vance has received the Ohio Theatre Alliance Lifetime Achievement award. Northwest Roosevelt High School, Seattle, Wash. Ruben Van Kempen has stacked up a few honors: He is the recipient of the 2004 Butch Blum Award of Roosevelt High’s And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank was produced at the 2007 International Thespian Show. Excellence, the 2000 Christa M c A u l i f f e Washington Award for Excellence in Education and the 1986 Seattle Excellence in Education Award. He has seen former students perform on Broadway in Curtains, Chicago, Thoroughly Modern Millie, A Chorus Line and Lennon, among others. Holland-born Van Kempen immigrated with his family to Seattle when he was 10, and early on was inspired to pursue theatre. He acted throughout high school, and received a degree from the University of Washington in Acting/Direction with an emphasis in Musical Theatre. He performed for a few years before realizing he really wanted to teach. He’s been at Roosevelt since 1979. Today the public school has 1,650 students and is a high academic school with a strong performing arts component. Built in 1922, they shut the school down in 2004 for a major renovation that tossed the program out the streets for two years. In 2006, it was reopened with a brand new 720-seat theatre with a 36-foot proscenium, 40-foot deep stage, a full orchestra pit, a fly gallery as well as scene and costume shops. The program offers Acting I through VII, plus a tech class in the fall and two in the spring—to serve the big spring musical. The first major event of their year is a one-act play festival featuring the work of student directors, which features 10–13 one-act plays. “Professional actors and directors are brought in to adjudicate,” he says. There are residency programs, one with the Seattle Rep and one in playwriting. Another program guides students through adapting short stories into performance art. “In the winter months, we do two straight plays,” Van Kempen says. “This year they will be She Stoops to Conquer and The Importance of Being Ernest. This is followed by the musical that typically casts around 65 students.” They’re also adding a second musical in the fall and early winter this year: White Christmas. The program has garnered international acclaim with their production of And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank. Frank’s stepsister, Eva Schloss, flew in for their production, which was also done at the International Thespian show in 2007. Southwest Valley Christian High School, San Jose, Calif. Mathew DeMerritt is likely the youngest in this circle of honorees: He’s only been at Valley Christian since 2002. He moved here to teach after earning a B.A. in Valley Christian High School built a turntable for Theatre from their production of Les Misérables. South Dakota State University. He had been on tour performing and directing when he got the unexpected call. “I jumped at the opportunity to come to a school that placed high importance on their artistic program,” he says. “One of the greatest things about the past six years, while everyone else is cutting programs and funding, we’ve added. Just this year we’ve added an additional production onto our season this year. And we have a fantastic staff.” Valley Christian is a private Christian high school with two campuses serving students K-12. They put on three main stage shows a year, plus offer a summer program involving 100 students. There’s the musical, a full-length student directed show in the late spring, two junior high productions, two elementary productions and two dance programs. Students can engage in an intensive training program and either major or minor in the arts, and create an area of emphasis in theatre arts. “Students design shows, direct, construct, work behind and in front of the camera—we really put it all in the hands of the students.” Full time tech director Donny Fugate manages the theatre space—including a 1,600 square-foot scene shop the school recently added. “Right now, looking out my office, I see the kids are assembling a turntable on our stage,” he says. “They construct wood, weld, fabricate, hang the lights, focus and design every area of production.” The Importance of Being Ernest was a recent production, with The Crucible coming up next. The spring musical is going to be Singin’ in the Rain. “That’ll be a little daunting,” DeMerritt confesses. “We haven’t tried to make it rain on a show before. But then again, we never built a turntable before last year’s Les Miz.” DeMerritt seems especially proud of the summer theatre program, which is open to kids 7–16 years old throughout the San Francisco Bay area. They just did Aladdin Junior and are next doing Wizard of Oz. They’ve received honors for their 2007 Thoroughly Modern Millie and other awards, “but the main focus in not to be in competitive awardsbased programs,” he says. “We don’t compete in programs generally. We focus on the program.” “Our motto is the quest for excellence,” says DeMerritt. “Whatever we do, we’re going to it in the best possible way we can. We measure our program against the best in the country, and constantly try to improve on the models out there.” 26 November 2009 • www.stage-directions.com
Canada Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts, Edmonton, Alberta “Wow,” exclaims Greg Dowler-Coltman on receiving the news that SD had selected his program as the best in Canada. “What a wonderful bit of news to get after coming home from a Victoria School’s production of The Laramie Project first rehearsal for White Christmas!” Dowler-Coltman is from the Edmonton area, and received his B.F.A. in acting at the University of Alberta. Soon he was doing more directing then acting, working with several professional companies. Next he was drawn to teaching. He’s been at Victoria since 1998, and heads a staff of five, the newest member a former graduate of the program. The school itself is one of the oldest in the city, and in 1986 it was turned into an arts program school. The total school population is 1,700, but that’s includes grades K-12. It’s International Baccalaureate recognized and has high academic standards. “One aspect we celebrate is the opportunity to explore different arts,” says Dowler-Coltman. “Our kids can keep a foot in dance and choral, for example. They can pursue more than one discipline.” The high school is for grades 10 through 12, and an audition is required to be allowed into the arts program. The theatre program offers different levels of acting, performance ensemble, improvisation and technical studies. Directing and playwriting is also part of the offerings. “We also host Playworks, an annual festival of 28 one-act plays.” The theatre itself seats 700, and “is really the jewel of the program with state-of-the-art audio and lighting systems. Professional lighting designers come in and mentor the kids, but the kids do the work.” Last year’s efforts include My Fair Lady and The Village of Idiots. This year, besides White Christmas, they will be doing Arthur Miller’s American Clock. Added to that are several integrated showcases and smaller events. One is called “Inspire” which is a collaboration between the band and theatre departments where students will be presenting inspirational speeches throughout history set to music. “We’re also blessed with a local arts community that has embraced our kids and we’ve had fabulous partnerships,” Dowler-Coltman says, adding that the town’s biggest professional theatre, the Citadel, has turned to his program for performers in shows like Oliver!. The community regularly raises hundreds of thousands of dollars to make scholarship money available to their students and have master classes with Broadway stars held on their campus. They’ve done well in the CAPPIES, though “we’ve elected not to compete too much because our kids are so busy with our own productions and the festival.” “The lovely thing is that we make a big enough impression on these kids that they want to stay in touch with us and see how they can contribute,” adds Dowler-Coltman. “That’s a testimonial.”
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