Steps To The Stage
Steps To The Stage
Behind the Curtain: Inside Claremont High School's Thriving Theater Program
Curious about how a high school theater department thrives in today's competitive extracurricular landscape? Join us on "Steps to the Stage" as we shine a spotlight on the Claremont High School theater department. We'll kick off our journey with an intimate conversation with Director Mohamed Mangrio, who shares his inspiring path to leading this energetic program. Alongside him, Avin Bessono, co-president of Troop 2129, opens up about the joys and challenges of leading the Thespians. Plus, hear from Zoe Averagell and Moxie Moore, the dynamic duo behind the theater's social media presence, as they reveal their passion for promoting the arts online and give us a sneak peek into their exciting "Wicked" fundraiser movie night.
Ever wondered how a high school theater chooses its performances? Discover the intricacies behind Claremont High's show selection process, from smaller one-act plays to grander productions like Willy Wonka Jr. and Mean Girls High School Edition. Learn how artistic vision is balanced with ticket sales, and the significant role the student-run technical department plays in bringing these shows to life. This episode also looks into the ticketing process and the invaluable student input that shapes each season's lineup.
But the magic doesn't stop there. We explore the critical roles of stage managers and tech crew members, shedding light on their backstage challenges and triumphs. Hear firsthand accounts of leadership struggles, maintaining professionalism, and the unexpected joys of working behind the scenes. This episode also celebrates the immense support from the Claremont community and alumni, highlighted by an upcoming benefit concert organized by alumnus Michael Alden to support students attending the International Thespian Festival. Tune in for a heartfelt look at the passion and dedication that fuel this thriving theater program.
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Perfect and for the students. Are you guys excited too?
Speaker 2:I'm super excited.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's a really cool idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm hoping to be one of the playwrights this year. I really want to do it. I just think it's really cool.
Speaker 4:I want to be a part of it in some way. It sounds really interesting.
Speaker 3:I want to show up and take a bunch of pictures and post them on the Instagram.
Speaker 1:Wow, I could tell yeah, you guys are all excited for it the curtain's up. This is Steps to the Stage. Welcome back to Steps to the Stage drama department. My name is Georgia Haddad, I'm your host and today I'm with Claremont High School's theater department. So if you guys would like to introduce yourself, start with the director. Hi.
Speaker 5:I'm Mohamed Mangrio. I've been the director here for my fourth year now.
Speaker 1:Perfect and your students.
Speaker 2:Hello, my name is Avin Bessono. I'm currently the co-president of Troop 2129 here at Clement High School.
Speaker 3:Hi, I'm Zoe Averagell and I am one of the co-social media managers of Troop 2129.
Speaker 4:My name is Moxie Moore and I am the other co-social media manager of Troop 2129.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Well, it's nice to meet all of you guys and thank you guys for coming out here and joining us.
Speaker 5:So a question for the director, a little background. So how long have you been directing in this school and how is it? It's great. This is my fourth year. Here, we are in our 62nd season for Claremont High School and I'm the third director to ever run the program. So Don F Frickte, whose name is on the building, he was a founding director and worked here for a little over 30 years. And then his student, krista Carsonel High, took over and was here for 28 years, and she happened to be my teacher at a different school. And when I became a teacher she found out she was retiring. I threw my hat in because this is basically a dream job for the type of theater that I want to do and that I do. Um and so here I am.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Thank you so much, and a question for the co-president. Um, so tell me how's your time and how does it feel being co-president of the Thespian?
Speaker 2:Honestly, it's, it's all like a blast. Uh, I joined here the troop when I was like, during my freshman year. Like always, I like, even in my first meeting I was like I gotta be president, like I was like I have to be, um, you know, I love, I love running the meetings. That's the main main thing we do is we run the meetings, um, and we coordinate community service events events me and my other co-president, um, yeah, it's so fun. I love, you know, making all the sign-up sheets and everything. My favorite part is probably reaching out to all the different organizations in the community.
Speaker 1:Right, perfect, and for your social media people. So tell me what is the best part about doing social media for the theater?
Speaker 4:Me. Okay, what I like about it is I love being able to, because I've always had social media ideas for the theater. Like since I joined, since I was inducted my freshman year and started following the CHS 2129 Instagram account, I've loved posting the shows on my own stories, making little creative ways to advertise, and I just love being able to to be like the online voice of the troop. It's really fulfilling to do that for a troop that I love so much Zoe, anything to add.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I also. I just love social media managing in general. I think it's a really fun job and especially with, like, the troop. There's just so many different areas that we can boost online and um spotlight. And again, like, I also had a lot of ideas for different videos, different spotlights, different posts, and it's really cool to be able to do that now that's good.
Speaker 1:So it looks like you guys are enjoying it. So far. That's good to hear. So um question for all of you guys. So I see you guys are doing a movie night a wicked fundraiser. Um, tell us more about the fundraiser and what is it? What is it funding?
Speaker 2:uh, yeah. Well, so, um, one of the teachers here at claremont high school, his name is, uh, david sawhill, he actually, uh, he, uh, he's talked to um in a lemley theater down the street right from our school, um, and he kind of asked like hey, like he pitched a little idea to them. He was like hey, would you be willing to, you know, host, like like a private showing of wicked, if we, you know, pay you enough money? And they were like, yeah, sure, um, so, yeah, he did that. And then he ended up getting a bunch of sponsorships. So all these sponsorships you're actually paying for, so we're not even paying anything, right, and then we also get all the proceeds.
Speaker 2:So forty dollars, uh, for a ticket that's neat I know it's good, it's cool and yeah, it includes like a drink of popcorn, and our goal right now is we're trying to sell out the house completely and if we do, we'll get like upwards of like ten thousand dollars that's perfect.
Speaker 1:So do you guys have any idea of how much you guys sold so far? Is it going great?
Speaker 5:um, it's just, it's just starting out. I think we're um a little like around 30 tickets have sold. So there's, you know about, I think it seats a total of like two, a little over 200. Um, so, yeah, we are like, like we said, or 40 a ticket. All the proceeds come back to chs theater, um, because all of the all of the costs have already been covered perfect, perfect.
Speaker 1:I'm assuming all the theater kids already bought their tickets to see wicked. I'm, I'm excited. Well, that's good, yeah, that's great. And um, so about your 2024 to 2025 season? Uh, let's start off with the first show you guys are doing. And um, again question for all of you guys run us through it uh.
Speaker 5:So the first one is, uh, the 24-hour plays, and this is the first time for us to do that. Uh, we were at the international thessamine festival last june in indiana and one of our students participated in this at the festival and what it is is it's a um on a for us. We're doing on a saturday night, we're going to start and everybody comes, get, comes together. There's six directors, six playwrights, six stage stage managers and 24 actors and they meet each other and the actors get to kind of talk about something that they've always wanted to do on stage, that they've never been able to, and kind of dream roles, that kind of thing. They bring a costume element and a prop and then the playwrights take all that information.
Speaker 5:So the actors, everybody, goes home and the playwrights stay and they write from like 10 pm until 6 am, so they have that much time to write an entire play, about 10 to 15 minutes. Yeah, trying to incorporate all those ideas. And then everybody comes back together in the morning, from 8 am till 8 pm. So that would be our 24 hours, and they rehearse the whole thing. The audience shows up at 8 o'clock and they perform.
Speaker 1:Perfect and for the students. Are you guys excited too?
Speaker 2:I'm super excited.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's a really cool idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm hoping to be one of the playwrights this year. I really want to do it. I just think it's really cool.
Speaker 4:I want to be a part of it in some way. It sounds really interesting.
Speaker 3:I want to show up and take a bunch of pictures and post them on the Well, perfect.
Speaker 1:And this one here. It says you guys are doing a show. I don't know if it's a show, so correct me if I'm wrong. High school league.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's our comedy sports. We're with comedy sports like the organization. Oh awesome. Yeah, it's cool. It's an improv team here at Claremont High School.
Speaker 2:They meet like every week, Every week yeah, yeah, and so those dates are all of our shows and like, how it works is so? They'll like pick out, like for every show. They'll be like, oh, we're going to play these four games, right, and they'll go up. It's like a little improv game, yeah. So then, yeah, they'll go out in front of the audience just play the improv games. It's super fun.
Speaker 3:Perfect.
Speaker 2:I've been in it for the past three years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're really fun to watch and be in the audience. It's super interactive. They take suggestions from all the audience members. Yeah, and it's such a fun experience to go to a comedy sports game, so if you haven't been to one, I recommend it.
Speaker 1:So all of you guys have attended one.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I've attended. I'm on the comedy sports team, so has Ava.
Speaker 1:Yep oh, perfect, alright. So you guys are all good at improv. You guys love doing it, it's fun hopefully sure, sure and what about for your theater director? Are you good at improv as well? You love doing it.
Speaker 3:I'm good at teaching it perfect we'll get him on the teacher match sometime.
Speaker 4:Mangrove needs to be in a teacher match oh, if you guys do, please release it on your social media oh yeah, and um november 8, the um f-o-o-t auction, or foot auction is how I'm reading it, so tell me more about that that's uh, f-o-o-t stands for friends of our theater, um, so basically what that is is students um, collect like different, different, different things to sell in baskets and auction them off, and the whole night. We have like previews of the upcoming season, so musical theater will do like a song from from the last musical and a song from the winter musical, and then advanced theater will perform a scene from the play and in between each of those little previews, auctioneers will sell these baskets and it's a huge fundraiser for the theater.
Speaker 1:Perfect, and for the director as well, if you could tell me more about this as well.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's like Moxie said it's a huge fundraiser. It pretty much kind of gives our financial footing for the whole season. Upwards of $10,000 to $15,000. Is generally raised in two nights. This year we're condensing it to one night. Is generally raised in two nights. This year we're condensing it to one night. And then it also gives an opportunity for everybody to see the upcoming shows as we preview the season as well.
Speaker 1:That's great. So can anyone auction, or it's just the students or anyone outside the school or within the school?
Speaker 5:It's open to the public. We have a lot of just community members that may not even have students in the school yet, that just come because they want to support our program. Otherwise, yeah, the audience anybody who comes to see the show is also able to bid.
Speaker 1:That's great. I love how welcoming that is. And for December 12th through the 14th, an extra show you guys are running. It's the Amazing Lemonade Girl. Now is that a musical or is that a play?
Speaker 5:It's a play and it's a true story about a girl named Alex who died of cancer when she was eight years old, and when she was around four, she realized that the doctors needed more help to raise money for cancer research, and so she started a lemonade stand. The doctors needed more help to raise money for cancer research, and so she started a lemonade stand, and then, between the ages of four and eight, that whole concept just grew, and by the time she was eight years old at the year she died, there were lemonade stands all over the country and it's now a foundation Alex's Lemonade Stand that still exists and they've continued to raise, I believe, millions of dollars for cancer research.
Speaker 2:That's amazing, and the cool thing is that we're actually partnering with them, the organization for that show.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're going to have one of their booths there. A lemonade stand.
Speaker 1:Let's us base on Next to Normal.
Speaker 4:Next to Normal is. It's a musical, it has a very small cast and it's basically about this family with a mother who has bipolar depression and struggles with her mental health, and her whole family kind of goes through trials and tribulations because of their mother and she goes through therapy, she goes through different treatments. It's a very, very moving and impactful musical with amazing music, amazing soundtrack, amazing score and, yeah, it's just all around just a wonderful musical.
Speaker 5:And one of the major themes is about grief and grieving the loss of a family member, and so we can see this family and how different people deal with that grief and that not everybody is the same and not everybody recovers the same way and deals with those kinds of things the same way. So it's done very well, so you can kind of see the various coping mechanisms that people have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's personally my favorite part of the show. I was reading the script, like last week, and just seeing how all the different family members and all the different members in the show how they deal with this grief and this trauma, the things that are afflicting them.
Speaker 4:It really shows it centralizes around the mother and her mental health, but it shows the mental health issues with the whole family and how they all kind of react to things differently and it just shows every character is complex, every character is a fully developed person and it's really interesting to see.
Speaker 1:So I'm hearing it's really emotional and really strong and very touching.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 1:That's great. And how do you get tickets for these shows too?
Speaker 4:Well, we post them on the Instagram for every show. Go follow, yeah, go follow our Instagram.
Speaker 3:Claremont2129 on Instagram. Yes, and then we also have our Claremont High School website, where you can access all of the tickets for the season. Claremont High School Theater.
Speaker 2:Perfect.
Speaker 3:Claremont.
Speaker 4:High School Theater.
Speaker 2:Dot com, dot com.
Speaker 4:CHS? Well, I don't know.
Speaker 5:That's not exactly it. That's not it. Don't.
Speaker 4:Claremont High.
Speaker 1:School Theater dot com, that's not it.
Speaker 5:It should be on our page. Yeah, it should. A link on the homepage of the school site.
Speaker 1:Yes, Perfect, all right, so on to the next one. On March 6th through the 8th, you guys are doing one acts and are you guys excited for it?
Speaker 4:I'm super excited, yeah, so excited.
Speaker 5:So the beginning theater production class is going to be doing a one act directed by me, so it's no longer just student directed, it's like a festival of one acts, and then in the past it's usually only been about three, because that's how much time you generally have for an evening of performances. But because there's so many wonderful students that I think are ready to direct, I'm opening that up a little bit, and so we're going to keep them smaller. They're going to be no more than 30-minute shows, but we're going to do, hopefully, six of them. And so then for our weekends we'll do like on Thursday night we'll do shows one, two and three, and then Friday we'll do four, five and six, and then on Saturday we're doing all day, all six shows, and so, yeah, so it's a little bit different than it has been in the past, but I've just been going to other Setting up a little.
Speaker 5:Yeah and just like I went to, I saw someone actually at a different company in LA like not so long ago and I've just been kind of inspired by how they ran their night. So I've kind of taken inspiration from other directors and other programs and we're bringing it here.
Speaker 1:And on April 3rd to the 5th you guys are doing Willy Wonka Jr. Oh my gosh, Now that sounds cool. I personally did not know. There was a junior.
Speaker 3:There is a junior.
Speaker 1:We've been. Oh yes, we were in it. I want to design Me too.
Speaker 3:I'm assuming everyone went wild when this got revealed yeah.
Speaker 1:Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Are you guys excited for that one so excited?
Speaker 5:I'm working that for sure. Oh, okay, I was like that's a little big, the ball is rolling Awesome.
Speaker 3:That one is limited to the advanced theater class.
Speaker 1:Advanced theater class.
Speaker 3:All of them in that class have the opportunity to audition.
Speaker 1:And last but not least, May 30th to June 1st, you guys are doing.
Speaker 2:Mean.
Speaker 1:Girls High School Edition, musical Theater. So I'm assuming you guys could do it.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You could do it as well as well.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 5:That's perfect Moxie's in both. She's in Musical Theater also.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the resume is stacking up, oh, yeah, and you could also get the tickets on the websites you said.
Speaker 5:Absolutely, and that show is the one we do at Bridges Auditorium at Pomona College. Perfect, yes.
Speaker 1:When you pick a show or when you, you know, get a license for the show. What drives you to pick what decision, like, let's say, if you want to do Mean Girls or if you want to do Percy Jackson. Is it the students that convince you to be like, hey, you should pick this one or that one, or is it just like you're like, no, I'm picking this one?
Speaker 5:It's a little bit of both. I do ask for some input from students, kind of depending on the class, but I mean it's a whole season right. So I love to do shows that when people leave a show that they're continuing conversation. That's like one of my favorite type of theater.
Speaker 5:Yeah yeah, and a show like Next to Normal should be able to do that. It's about mental health and it's about grief and loss, but that's also not a lot of people know Next to Normal. So then I have to think as a producer and I have to sell tickets because otherwise I can't pay for this eight show season, right? So that's where things like Harry Potter and Mean Girls come in. You know, and you know that's very popular. People are really excited about them. I'm also very excited about them, but I also need to sell tickets.
Speaker 5:So, if you, there's another show that I saw, a new musical when we were at International called Between the Lines, that I just like I fell in love with, I'm just like I really, really want to direct this show and I want to direct it in our final slot and I want to do that at Bridges Auditorium.
Speaker 5:But nobody knows what that title is. So the amount of work and resources that would have to go to marketing just to make sure people went there would be different than doing something that is known so people went there would be different than doing something that is known. So that definitely factors in when you're looking at a whole season. But, like I said the main thing. Like I pick up a script and if I can visualize it and I can see it on our stage and it's telling a story like it's tugging at me, then that goes in the pile of like this is what I want to direct. So I have these lists of like. These are things I want to do at some point, but then every year you got to put the whole season together. That has that is varied.
Speaker 1:Do you guys also do tech as well, right?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I do a lot of tech, um, I think, honestly, tech. The fact that our um technical department is so strong and also mostly run by students is like one of my favorite aspects of the theater. It's like working a show and seeing every single element come together and knowing that it was like your friend who designed that prop, or like your, like your friend who did that costume or whatever, or someone or your friend typing in all the stuff at the light board. It's just so fulfilling, and so I think it also it it makes what we do a lot more impressive, knowing that all of it, all of it was done a good amount of it at least, was done by students. Yeah, yeah, and I love I've worked lighting, hair and makeup, wardrobe scenic definitely, oh, audio, and I just I don't know. It's such a fun frontier to explore.
Speaker 1:That's good, and I bet it feels good when you're just like seeing it all come together on stage.
Speaker 4:You're like, yeah, I did that. See that spotlight, that's me yeah.
Speaker 5:And when it comes to, as a director, the way the program runs, once the show opens, I literally don't do anything. Like I show up and I open the doors, the stage management team, everything going, you know, everyone has their departments, the actors know what they're doing, we've, we're ready, and the only thing that if I'm, if I'm, doing anything to support the show, it's because I'm stepping into someone who may not be there or, you know, like to fix a mistake, whatever. But yeah, um, I I'm on comms only for emergencies so that if, like, they need an adult somewhere, then I will go.
Speaker 3:Um, but otherwise everything is done by students it's really fun because because there's so many leadership positions that you get to be in and just so much experience, because, even if you're not completely sure what you're interested in, you have the option to try out so many different things. And also I know we talked about it earlier of how you can be in sports and theater and all those people support you and you support them. But also just working backstage theater and all those people support you and you support them. But also, um, just working backstage people will come and support you because they want to see what you put together. Um, like tech does so much behind the scenes, that isn't necessarily um, um.
Speaker 5:I feel like it's yeah, it's not shown, yeah.
Speaker 3:So hopefully we can do better of representing the technical side. Yeah, but again, like it's just, it's really cool that you can. You can do so many different things in theater. You don't have to just be a performer, you can work backstage and have fun with it and just all that together.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's another thing that kind of warps the idea of like a theater kid Typical.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like more than that.
Speaker 1:Honestly, even even before I even started acting, I was like being a theater kid, Come on.
Speaker 3:I started doing it.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 4:I was like well, I kind of feel cool.
Speaker 1:You know I mean, yeah, that's great. I mean show other than the actors as well. So, um, again from the director, you were telling me how you obviously you do you step in and stuff, but it's basically just whole student ran, the whole show and technical aspect and I'm assuming they're very reliable and that sounds really really good. So when you guys are on tech and like, let's say, you guys are doing costumes and stuff, what do you say it's the most like challenging part about teching or doing some sort of I don't know how to explain it some sort of input in the show. What's the most challenging part?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Okay. So last year I was a stage manager, production stage manager for a few shows, and for me the definite hardest part was just communicating with everyone there's so many people and they're all students, right.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:So many people. They're all students. You know people exaggerate things. Things get lost in translations, like oftentimes, like I'll say something, my words will get like warps and I'll be like what? Like I never said that. So yeah, that was definitely one of the challenges clear communication between everyone.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you too. Yeah, I'm like all right. Lights. He said curtain, no, I said light. Yeah, that was good.
Speaker 3:Keeping track of people, because people will just walk out sometimes and it's like where?
Speaker 4:are you going?
Speaker 1:We have a job to do. We need a stage manager. Why is he at McDonald's?
Speaker 4:Were you right after that yeah, quite honestly, real answer dealing with people just in general. Like I said before, there's all this love that comes with working in theater, but there's also all this frustration and things get again lost in translation, love that comes with working in theater.
Speaker 4:But there's also all this um frustration and like um, things get again lost in translation and like people, people will do things. That um, I mean it's hard as a stage manager, because I I've been an assistant stage manager it's hard um going from like a regular crew member being clueless to somebody in power and like oh, oh shoot, I have to like actually put my foot down and like discipline, like be, be mean to people if I need to you know, yeah, and it's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a good experience, but it's also sometimes a struggle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that, that too Cause. Yeah, like these. So, hard for me to be rude or mean Like, hey, you can't do that. It's almost like. The part of me is like no man go ahead, but I'm like I can't.
Speaker 4:I can't. I gotta be professional. How do I tell my best friend she can't leave during the show to go get canes?
Speaker 2:Yeah exactly. And they're all trying to bribe you Like oh no, I'll get you some too, and you, I can't do this?
Speaker 4:I can't do this right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And just like getting people to take you seriously, like yeah we're the same grade Like yeah, I know you, but like I also am in charge of how many points you're getting from this show, yeah, you're like, if you don't listen to me, this show is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm deducting points. That's a big threat is like oh, I'm going to deduct points.
Speaker 3:Oh work, you can get a max amount of points and whoever your super is.
Speaker 1:That's being points, right? Yeah, that's being points.
Speaker 3:Whoever your super is gets to decide how, if you get a minimum, normal whatever, and then a maximum, yeah, and so that's a good use.
Speaker 4:Yeah, sorry, sometimes when I'm like in like someone's like boss and I'm trying to like put my foot down and like tell them like what they did is not okay, it kind of feels like I'm being like listen up punk, like listen to your buster, like it feels like I'm just like not like it feels hard. It's hard to like get that like kind of power, I guess, without kind of feeling a little silly yeah, I mean sometimes walking like, hey, you gotta be there.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm so sorry I said that, but yeah, I know how that feels you gotta make sure you're not gonna go on a power trip, because like we had a whole. We just did a leadership thing over the weekend and like it was it was, most of it was centered. Oh sorry, okay oh okay, so give me a look um. A big portion of it was how to be in a position of leadership without like overstepping overstepping your, your place, yeah.
Speaker 1:I understand it sometimes where someone's like I have this power, they don't know they're overusing it, because they're like they know they're doing something right, yeah, but it's like come on, you're like, hey man, you're my friend.
Speaker 3:Like, yeah, when? Yeah, like, can we be civil? Where's the? How's your?
Speaker 1:day, Not go, get in costume you know. Well, that's great. So you guys started all from tech, I'm assuming, or something before acting, or one of you guys started acting first.
Speaker 2:I actually, I think, all of us we all started performing. Yeah, we all started performing.
Speaker 4:I didn't think I was ever going to work a tech crew. I only thought I was going to do it for the points and then I started doing it and I was like wait.
Speaker 1:So you guys, obviously you guys love performing and doing all the good stuff?
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:But tech is obviously different. It's like when you're doing a film or you're filming something, you're like that's cool seeing the picture, but I want to see the camera. I want to see how it's made.
Speaker 3:There's been times where I've worked shows that I really would have loved to be in um percy jackson was one of them but I think honestly, like getting to have that experience of working backstage and working alongside, like you're still a part of it. You still get to be part of it. So, even though you're not in the cast, like you still are part of this big picture and it's just. It was so much fun. That was by far the most fun I've had working a show. I I usually work hair and makeup that's that's my crew of choice um, but that that was just a really positive experience. And those, those experiences really are what bring you back to working show after show after show, even though we have like such a long season with, yeah, packed with shows, like whenever we go to, whenever we're talking to other troops, or like we were at um, like thespian festivals and stuff, and we were like, oh yeah, we have like a nine because we we usually did nine shows right, like the past couple years. Am I blanking?
Speaker 3:uh, yeah yeah, we've had nine show seasons this year. We cut back a little bit, thank god but we have eight shows now. Um, but like people, like the reactions that people will give you when you're like oh yeah, we, we have a nine show season, yeah like they're like that's one of my favorite things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, most people have like a fall play and a spring musical and we're like yeah, we have shows every month and and also because we we do our runs are usually just like one weekend and we build up to that throughout our tech week. But just sorry, my train of thought is not working right now, but the amount of opportunities that we have make it really easy to get inducted faster than other theater departments, departments, I think, because of just the sheer amount of shows that we put on.
Speaker 3:so there's so many opportunities to meet that point requirement by the end of your freshman year, which is why we have such a large number of inducted thespians. So I don't, I just, I just think it's really cool how many shows we're able to put on in one year I think it's impressive too.
Speaker 1:I mean it's so nice how you your guys's school is very involved, especially in the thespian society yeah and I. I personally I love that because, like I've seen all the festivals and all the stuff on, you know, instagram reels or youtube, and I'm like this is so cool.
Speaker 3:So knowing that you guys got to experience those type of things and it, you know, exploring it, that's that's really great claremont's kind of always been really supported by, or Claremont, like the art theater department, has been like supported by the community for a really long time.
Speaker 3:Like, um, I've been doing, uh, throwback Thursdays on the Instagram where we spotlight old productions that they put on here and, um, I think it was ooh, it was Sound of Music. They needed wedding dresses and stuff for the nuns and they had donations from different community members and they literally had the help of nuns to put the show on and it was a whole thing Really cool, because I mean we don't do that now, had the help of nuns to put the show on and it was like a whole thing really cool, because I mean we don't do that now because it's just it's limited to the, the student body here, but just like seeing how involved like claremont has always been in our theater department is like really interesting to me and like we just have like such a rich history and even now, like our connections are still super strong with alumni and community members that have either been in our theater department, our alumni of that theater department, or just have always admired it. We'll touch on it later but with the Benefit concert, just the support is really nice.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean. Chs Theater has a near and dear place in people's hearts who have been part of it. For the benefit concert we're getting alumni from as far back as the class of 1968 coming back and performing, which just shows how much of a special place this really is and what a kind of magical community that there's always been here.
Speaker 3:I think we definitely have a lot of supporters. There are a lot of people that just kind of don't get into it, which is fine, but I think for our department at least, like we do have, we're really lucky to have a lot of um supportive like students and faculty members, community members who show up and show out for almost all of our shows it also depends there is, um, you know, a good deal of crossover between athletics and the arts here, and that's important to the school community and the admin how things are set up so that students can participate in various things.
Speaker 5:That's one of the unique things about our program is that for most of these shows, like the musicals, it's a class. You have to be in the musical theater class. We're rehearsing during the school day, not after school, so you can be in a musical and be an athlete, and those two things don't conflict. And so, like what's happened in the past, a previous student, andrew Eisenberg, who's a track runner, so like he, you know, whenever he was on stage, all of the cross country people were in the audience for him. So they're definitely supporting each other, and when we have that crossover, you see a lot more of the student body as well.
Speaker 4:I think, also because this department is so large, there's so many students involved in it that people harbor support from their friends and I feel like we're very lucky to be so widely supported across the campus in the way that we are, because I know that that's pretty unique to our school.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think social media also plays a major hand in the popularity and the rise of popularity of a lot of musicals right now, because there's a lot of trending audios that are from musicals and just having these platforms definitely helps broaden the fan base. And that sounds like a lot of it's not as like weird to be a theater kid now and that's like a stupid thing to say, but like it really.
Speaker 3:It's like there's just so many fans of theater and like the arts in general, like it's just not something that you would get picked on for now yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, kind of adding on to, like, what moxie had said.
Speaker 2:Like, since our department is so large, like during our meetings, you'll find literally every type of person. You'll go in there you'll find the president of French Club, you'll find a speech and debate captain, someone who swims, and that's one of my favorite things is, you have all these people united in one place because of theater, and that's what I like the most about it.
Speaker 3:There's also. There's also. There's something for everyone in theater like you don't have to be a performer to still be a part of theater, and something that I've really wanted to get out is that you don't actually have to be in one of the theater classes to still participate. We have so many odd like opportunities for people to sign up and work shows if they're at all interested. We have like QR codes that you can sign up and like just join crews and, like I just the the. The fact that we have so many opportunities for people for people to get involved is really special, um cause you can explore all those different areas without having to add a schedule.
Speaker 1:Tell, tell me more about. I hear you guys are having a benefit concert. Yeah. I would love to hear about the benefit concert and just run me through, let's touch base with it and just tell me about it. Question for all of you guys. Any answers?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Michael Alden is the alumni that is putting all of this together and basically it's a showcase of the past years how many? From 1960s to now. It's just a showcase of.
Speaker 5:So I believe Michael is class of 74, is that?
Speaker 3:right. Yes, he is class of 74.
Speaker 5:So the 50-year reunion for the class of 74 is on Saturday, the 14th, and so his idea was okay, if all these people are coming, let's do this On Sunday, let's do another concert, because the people are coming in for the reunion. And this all kind of started when because we go to the International Thespian Festival every year and it's not cheap, it's in Indiana, we fly there. Between the registration and the room and board and everything, it's about $1,700 a person, and so not everybody can afford that. And so we this year, michael's group of people were able to raise $8,000 for us to use towards scholarships for students that are going to ITF. So that's where the benefit comes in. The money that they're raising is to create an endowment that will forever give us money to send kids to international festivals. That's great. You can tell more about that. So that's the background on tell more, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So that's that's the background on, like the what the benefit is for um, but basically it we're inviting alumni from 1960s to current um to perform songs that they performed at chs. So they have numerous different musicals that we've put on at CHS and they're bringing back the performers that did those and as well as that. Like sorry, on top of that musical theater, the class is also going to be performing on Sunday, and so it's just really cool because we're getting all of these different generations that have all passed through this theater in one, in one show that's really cool yeah it's gonna be super, super awesome yeah, that sounds really exciting.
Speaker 1:So, so, um, so, how does it feel like getting all these alumni coming back and just performing for this concert? Are you guys excited? I'm very excited.
Speaker 4:It's gonna be very, very cool, both for the students to see what they could possibly become like, see people who were once in their positions, who have gone and lived successful, amazing theater lives, and also for parents or people who have lived here for a while, who maybe have seen these shows when they were first on, and it's going to be super, super amazing. We have people who have been on Broadway in movies, who have been Michael Alden himself is a Broadway producer. He's the one producing this event.
Speaker 4:Yeah, these people are wildly, wildly impressive and it's just, it's astonishing to like be able to see these people perform here. I'm super excited.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm personally just hearing. I'm shocked like that is, that's really cool and that sounds really efficient and I hope it goes really good. I I mean, when is it again?
Speaker 4:september 15th it's this sunday at 2 pm, garrison theater. You should come see it I would love to go see it.
Speaker 1:So, um, that's great. So you guys, um, you are doing this benefit for the kids who can't afford to go to indiana. You said for the, um, the thespian festival, right, correct, and I think that is really, really amazing, because there's some students and some kids that I know you probably would know that that give it their all and sometimes they can't afford it, and it's heartbreaking because you're like I really wished it could go, and so this concert will really give them the opportunity to go. So that's really great and I'm really really happy that at high school, you guys are doing something like this and that's really great, especially with Thespian stuff, because some kids really love it and they're like, oh, awesome. Me personally, I've never been, but to whoever is going, and if you guys are already going, I'm happy for you guys and I'm happy for anyone who else is coming. So that's really really good and oh, yeah, how do you how?
Speaker 1:do you guys get tickets?
Speaker 4:um well, there are tickets. There's a link to tickets up on the claremont high school theater instagram. That, what else?
Speaker 3:uh, yeah, it's a scripts. It's a scripts present. Uh, presents production they're hosting at the garrison. We have the link. Like moxie said on the instagram, yeah, and if you go to um claremont high school theater's website, the link, like Moxie said on the Instagram.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and if you go to Claremont High School Theater's website, the link to tickets is also there.
Speaker 1:Yes, Well, yeah, you guys are doing a lot and I hope you guys it all goes great and thank you guys so much for coming out and talking to us and coming through about your shows and also to everyone who's listening. This Sunday is going to be the benefit concert, so come check it out. Where is it going to be at?
Speaker 4:again, At the Garrison Theater 2 pm. 2 pm in Claremont 2 pm.
Speaker 1:Be there, come see the alumni and come see the amazing people who are at this table who are going to perform and yeah, so thank you guys so much, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4:Great. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Thanks for listening to Steps to the Stage, and now it's time for the curtain call.
