Steps To The Stage
Steps To The Stage
Empowering Young Talent in Theater: Ontario High School Drama Department
The episode highlights Ontario High School's thriving theater program, focusing on its recent renovations and the upcoming production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The conversation emphasizes the importance of student involvement, community support, and the transformative power of theater in fostering creativity and collaboration among young individuals.
• Recent theater renovations enhancing student experiences
• Student involvement in selecting and preparing for productions
• Challenges and creativity in producing special effects
• Reflection on past productions and their impact on growth
• Importance of community support for successful theater programs
• Goals of fostering creativity and confidence in students
• Upcoming production details and ticket sales information
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Welcome to Steps to the Stage Drama Department, a 7th Street Theatre podcast featuring local area Inland Empire Schools Drama Department and now your host, Giorgio Haddad.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Steps, to the Stage Drama Department. I am your host, giorgio Haddad, and today we are going to be highlighting Ontario High School's Theatre Department, and today I am with the director, jessie. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Giorgio. It's nice to be here.
Speaker 2:So what have you guys been up to in Ontario?
Speaker 3:Well, ontario High School got some new renovations last year thanks to the AMI grant, and so our entire sound system has had a reboot. Our lighting system and our lighting board thankfully, because it had pooped out just before the funding came in also got a reboot, and we are so lucky to have such a supportive administration. My principal, Larry Rook, and also the head of CTE at the district, eduardo Zaldivar, have both been so supportive of making sure that future renovations are also happening within. So we're getting some new sound treatment on our very old siding in our theater and some new flooring and tiling, hopefully as well, and the theater has really gotten a zhuzh up on the inside. But also, I think you know, just in general, we're doing great work inside of there.
Speaker 2:Awesome. And how is the students responding to all this special treatment you guys are getting?
Speaker 3:Well, they're very excited, of course, because once you get new equipment, you have new skills to learn, which can be both challenging and rewarding. But you also have the opportunity to showcase your talent with better lights and with better sound, and our audiences and our students are both really feeling the rewards of that.
Speaker 2:That is so great to hear. So is the theater? Is it finished or is it still in the process of being upgraded?
Speaker 3:Oh, you know, it is a nonstop working piece of machinery, for sure. So we had a huge influx of lights and sound at the end of the summer and we are working with that and we are working with that. But there are still some continued improvements to come. So we will be continuing to enjoy the fruits of our labors, and I always every year I actually write new grant writing for Perkins Grant funding. Oh, okay.
Speaker 3:And so, because I'm a CTE teacher in addition to being a drama teacher, I'm able to ask for funds through the state of California called Perkins Grants, and so I ask every year for new equipment and new opportunities for my students. So we'll talk more about that later.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Yeah, that sounds great, and I've heard from word of mouth you guys are doing a new production. Can you give us some insight about it and what's it called?
Speaker 3:Ooh, our next musical is drumroll, please. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Whoa, I know, we love it. We love it. This is a Christian Borle version for anyone who's a Broadway fan and it is very twisted. It has a lot of great music from the movie that many of us know and love, but it also gives a little bit more of a modern approach to it, and it does not shy away from the Roald Dahl gruesomeness as well, and so I'm really excited to bring that to life with my students. They've already submitted their lead role auditions and will be continuing to do callbacks and ensemble auditions right when we return on January 6th through 10th.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So the casting has not been decided yet.
Speaker 3:No, it's all mom's the word at this moment.
Speaker 2:Oh awesome, and I bet the kids are very excited.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, they really are.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So for the vision and direction, what inspired you to choose Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for this year's production? If you didn't choose it and if it was the kids, would you have an idea of what was their direction and why they chose that musical?
Speaker 3:So I have a process at the end of every school year towards the middle to the end of every school year called the Play Selection Project, called the Play Selection Project, and with the Play Selection Project my students learn about as many plays as they can and they select one that they think would be great for our school. Either it's going to be something that they love because it's edgy and they just want to do the edgy stuff, which I totally get, or it's something that they think is going to be great for our community in other ways. So one of the more successful place selection projects last year was actually presented by our current president of the drama club, sebastian Olguin, who you know, and Sebastian presented that to our advanced class.
Speaker 3:I presented it to the other classes and the drama club as well and it was one of the highest ranking of our selections and it just so happens to be my musical director's one of his favorite musicals.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 3:It was one of his favorite films growing up and it's one of his favorite musicals, so it was a pretty easy choice once it was that high up on the list, and both Mr Velasquez and I are super excited to work on it.
Speaker 2:Solid. I'm excited to see it too, and I hope the students are ready to rumble once you guys start the rehearsal process and stuff. I am so sure they're like biting their nails with the casting list, like I don't know what I'm going to get, but that is so cool.
Speaker 3:So how did you and the students approach adapting such a beloved musical for the stage? Well, my tech class I have a stage tech class which is all four levels, so I tackled some of the biggest challenges set-wise and props-wise for the show for our final last semester. So we're really kind of just starting the process of breaking away some of those tougher moments. Because we have a glass elevator that's supposed to fly through the air, we literally have to tear a girl in four pieces or more. We have to blow a girl up to the size of a human blueberry and we have to shrink a boy down to something that can fit in the palm of your hand. We also have to squeeze a very large boy through a very small pipe.
Speaker 3:So, you know, just like everyday stuff for theater, right? So these kids have had a great time just kind of workshopping different ideas, and you should see my classroom. It's just a maker's space of invention and that's ultimately what I want. I want them to hold the reins for this and I want them to be able to showcase their creativity and talents and I know it's going to be a great show because the audience itself has their own experience and imagination and it does sound spectacular.
Speaker 2:So is the students pitching some great ideas for all these special effects? Because these special effects sound like absolutely mind-blowing.
Speaker 3:I mean we have two prototypes for a human body that gets torn apart already. They're both fabulous. So I mean, just in general, I'm blown away by my kids. I almost always am, obviously, because I think that high school is kind of the height of creativity going into college as well, I think your mind is just so exploded with the yeses and you haven't had the life experience to accept the no's. So I think it's a great time to be alive and I love to watch and cultivate that.
Speaker 2:That is just so amazing to hear, and I'm glad that the students are pitching some amazing ideas. There's no doubt in my mind that's going to be amazing, and I'm myself. I'm excited for this musical as well. Deciding the musical, you told me that it was a pretty easy choice, but was there any challenges? You think that something kind of like pulled you guys back?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm not sure that I know enough yet to say that there are challenges to come. I'm sure there will be. I will talk about the previous show we did, which was Luchadora and talk about those challenges.
Speaker 3:Yes show we did, which was Luchadora, and talk about those challenges. So we also picked a bilingual show by Sar Alvaro Sar Rios sorry, I said his name backwards and he is a phenomenal playwright who writes a lot of bilingual plays, and my students have a lot of families who speak Spanish as well, so it was a really great show to pick, and one of the challenges of this show in particular, called Luchadora, was that we actually had to have live Lucha Libre fighting on the stage and well, I don't have that much experience with Lucha Libre, surprise surprise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I see you guys had a wrestling ring too during the show.
Speaker 3:We full-on built a wrestling ring in the pit, absolutely. And we brought in a friend of mine that I actually met here at Chino Community Theater when we were growing up here. His name is Carlos Duarte. We brought him in from LA. He is a fight director and a stunt double in LA and he does all sorts of great films and TV shows and he became our fight director for the show.
Speaker 2:No way.
Speaker 3:That is amazing it was phenomenal and the kids just had a wonderful experience with him. A couple of them really got into it and got the opportunity to do some great stunts in the show. So I will say that I can't talk to the challenges that are to come, but the challenges of the past. Students have been more than willing to tackle them, wholeheartedly, throw themselves into it, and it's just so much fun to have those challenges because that's where growth happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:The discomfort.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I'm hoping they had a good time in a wrestling ring. That just sounds so cool. So for a question for you and I guess if you could answer on the students' behalf is how do you think the production of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will help the students grow as performers and individuals?
Speaker 3:Well, there's a lot of different styles of musical in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. So we've got like some R&B stylings, we've got some full on yodeling going on at certain moments and we have just some beautiful musical theater styles as well. And so what I'm really excited about is them getting the opportunity to tackle different musical genres and also, with that tackling the genres, also going into a little bit of different choreography and I think that the characters of this show are really rich.
Speaker 3:You know it's a show that kind of focuses on the seven deadly sins a little bit. We've got greed and envy, we've got gluttony, and so all of these things, I feel like, can really lend themselves to a character development that's really rich, and so I know that my students are ready for that, and I'm excited to see where they take it.
Speaker 2:That is good, that's great to hear, and let's talk more about the history of the program. If you could give us some highlights and what was one of your most memorable moments directing a show or having the best rehearsal day of your life where it's like, oh, this is just stuck in the back of my head and I miss it. But yeah, bring us some more information about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, I started back in 2016. That's when I began my time with the program and I began with a really stellar group of students. I remember going into my office for the first time and there was a note pinned to the board from a sophomore who had somehow snuck into the office and gotten me a note about how excited he was to help start the program. His name is Ivan and he really, along with his group of friends, helped me to build and keep great momentum for our program. And so we've done shows like the Terror Trilogy, which was three different one acts. We did Seussical the musical my first year there which was so much fun with characters and one of the most incredible sets that we've ever done, thanks to my dad's help. Paul Larson was just phenomenal with that. We did A Midsummer Night's Dream. We did a dual language of Aladdin Whoa.
Speaker 1:So it's.
Speaker 3:Aladdin in Spanish and English.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 3:And it is a really beautiful way to tell the story. It has all of the famous songs from the Aladdin musical.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:But all of the royalty speak Spanish and all of the commoners speak English and Aladdin and Jasmine come together and speak like the Spanglish together, basically, and it's a really, really beautiful tale. So I did have a lot of fun with that because it was like a classic story retold in a very interesting way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds so interesting, especially with like. So you said they'll switch back to English and Spanish at the same time. Yes, that just sounds amazing. And with the music, too, was it some of the lyrics? Was it in Spanish as well?
Speaker 3:Yes, yes absolutely A whole new world, was completely bilingual. It was really fun. Awesome. We did Little Shop of Horrors with so many wonderful people that I still am in touch with today. A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime was another great one, where we workshopped it only in my advanced class, and so it was a true workshop production and the kids just brought it. It was really powerful. I would say. You talked about looking back to a time where you wish you could kind of like capture that again. Yeah, we did In the Heights in 2020. And so In the Heights went up in the beginning of March.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:And we had one weekend and there were already some rumblings. But by the time the second weekend was about to hit, school was closed and we weren't allowed to finish our run. And you know, at the time I was like, oh kids, it'll be all right, we'll be back in three. Yeah, we'll be back in three years yeah.
Speaker 3:We'll be back in a month, maybe we can do it this summer. Oh, and then, like, just everything changed right. I mean, once COVID locked us down entirely and we really realized how deeply we were in it, I realized that those kids just would never get the true closing that they wanted. And so I feel like if I had a time traveling device, I would go back to that time and figure out how to extend their run or change their run or give them that closing experience and that closure that we need.
Speaker 3:But also just I had so much merchandise that I still have, so in the Heights we may be coming for you again.
Speaker 2:Who knows, who knows, who knows what the future will hold. Because, you know, after, since the pandemic, all the teachers are like, oh, we'll be back in a week. And I'll say, yeah, next thing you know, a year passes by and you're like, oh my goodness, we're never.
Speaker 3:And within that year I also had a child. So life is just different coming back as a teacher with a child, with a newborn. So things were just different. But when we got back we started with a show that the kids lovingly named Mission Improvable.
Speaker 2:So it was an improv show.
Speaker 3:That way, if I ever had a kid who needed to drop out because they weren't feeling well or anything like that, we were able to still do the show it was really fun. It was like a game show meets an improv show. It was a lot of fun. So we used our creativity and we made it work for sure, for sure, and we've had some great shows since then.
Speaker 2:That is a really smart idea with the mission Improvable it's called. That is such a genius name. I love it. So what's your overachieving vision for the Ontario High School Theater Program?
Speaker 3:What is?
Speaker 2:your goal? What do you want kids to take from it once they leave and graduate?
Speaker 3:Well as a CTE. Cte stands for career technical education. As a CTE teacher and a fine arts teacher, I have the balance of really fostering creativity but having the mindset of preparing someone for the real world right.
Speaker 3:And so, overall, no matter whether my students really want to go into this art form as a career or whether they're using this as a stepping stone for graduation requirements, what I ultimately want is for students to find their voice Right, for someone to see or to hear, or to experience through lights. I think that all of those creative functions of theater are really important for the soul.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:And the ability of a student to tell a story with an ensemble is huge, and so, at the end of the day, if any of my kids don't go on to a career, I don't think of myself as any less of a teacher. I think that I am a doorway or a pathway to a human experience, and hopefully they'll be ready to step into it and build empathy, to step into it and to connect, and to step into it with a little more confidence than they may have had before they walked through my doors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would definitely agree with you on that, and I'm sure you had a handful of students that came in so shy and then once they graduated, they're all over the place and they're very confident. And that's one thing I do love about theater too is that you don't necessarily need to become an actor right as you graduate. It teaches you to be very good and efficient at public speaking and presenting without having that sort of like shyness and all that. Another question or I guess, yeah, a question is what advice would you give to aspiring directors or students interesting in pursuing theater?
Speaker 3:Well, aspiring directors, I'd say read, read, read. Know the material that you love, but also find new material that you love, but also find new material. Seek out new playwrights. Subscribe to channels that are going to help you to find new works. So there are websites where playwrights put up their new works. There are shows to be seen everywhere, and I think the more that you experience, the more you can develop your own personal vision. But also, even if you're experiencing a show that maybe you don't like so much, you're building within yourself that function of developing your eye, developing your taste, knowing what you like, and I think all of it serves you as a performer, all of it serves you as a director, especially.
Speaker 2:Right, Awesome and for the community impact with Ontario Theatre. How's the local community support or has the theatre been involved in any community events around the area?
Speaker 3:So these things kind of ebb and flow. Sometimes they're built up a lot because there are certain students who are more embedded in the community. We have a great group of talented students right now and we will always have a great group of talented students and I wish that every show was a sellout success. But I certainly don't want to prioritize that over the students' experience of putting on a great piece of art and having pride in their work. Now it takes a lot of money to put on great shows and the longer the run often the more word of mouth there is Right, but in a school a long run means administrators having to stay after every single night. It means your students not being able to do the sports functions that they need to do during that week.
Speaker 3:And so, in a community where so many people are pulled very, very thin, I always want to balance the life with the art, and so, you know, sometimes we only have four shows, or two shows, or three shows, and it's devastating for the kids who put in you know, three months' worth of work to have, you know a handful of their families actually be able to come. So we're working on it. That's in a constant state of flux.
Speaker 3:But I definitely think that that is one area that hopefully being on this podcast and also just putting students first when it comes to allowing them to express, to share their shows and to share their experiences. Hopefully that'll just continue to bring people back and alumni. If you're listening, I love seeing you at our shows. So please, please, please, come back over and over again, Because once you spend the time with me, I'm always your mama and this is always your home.
Speaker 2:And that sounds really, really great. And have any of your students ever came up to you and said would this, this thing that you have taught me, or whatever subject that you have taught them, has changed their life in a way where it's completely out of the box, away from them, where it's like they used to be shy, like we talked about, and now they're like this whole different person?
Speaker 3:where it's like they used to be shy, like we talked about, and now they're like this whole different person. I feel like almost every year, almost every semester, there's one or two lights that get turned on that a student actually feels comfortable talking about, and sometimes it'll be in a little survey at the end where I say just leave me a message, anything that you want or don't, and I'll just get you know. This beautiful, beautiful exchange of like this is what you have done and this is how I feel now. So, yeah, all of those are very priceless. I know that there are certainly students who have found that they are finally seen for who they are in my class or accepted for who they are with me, and I think one of the most important things is just that safe space for expression that students can have and that they can continue to learn and to delve without fear of having to hide their true self.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yes, and I did see your passion full hand too during Superstars. You are such an amazing director as well, alongside with Donna, and I do always look back at being in such an amazing program with amazing directors, and I myself had a wonderful experience. So I thank you for that and I hope that the students are ready to rumble with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I hope that if they're listening and they keep hearing the word Charlie and the Chocolate Factory like yes, yes keep talking about it.
Speaker 2:Come with me, and for this musical in particular, what themes or messages do you hope resonate with the audience through this production?
Speaker 3:Well, I think this musical doesn't pull any punches when it comes to its judgments of people. It definitely, you know, has its finger on the pulse of so many problematic behaviors that either we as an American society have, or just societies in general may have, relating to, you know, to just the constant intake of social media or of the need to be seen and don't get me wrong, it's important to be seen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Right, but the monetary value that's attached to that maybe is where we get a little broken right. And so what I hope is that the dreamers in us get realized through the course of this show, because really it's about thinking outside of the box and it's about accepting the what ifs as the what if they are right now right. Without any judgment, to just really be able to dive in and to say yes to an idea and then let it figure itself out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, and so I hope that, yes, there are lessons to be learned in it and there are certainly moral compasses that guide the show, but at the end of the day, I think it's really about the dreamers and accepting the dreamer in all of us.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, I 100% agree. During this whole process, or even if you watched I'm assuming you watched the film, what have you learned from it, especially aside from the dreamers and stuff? What is one thing that did catch your attention?
Speaker 3:Well, I love that Gene Wilder. I don't know if you know this story, but Gene Wilder, when he accepted the role, he said he would only accept it on one condition that Greenwilder, when he accepted the role, he said he would only accept it on one condition that he could come out with a cane and act feeble and old and then somersault into the body that he has.
Speaker 3:And so I'm probably misphrasing it slightly but, he said that he wouldn't do it unless he had that moment, because from that moment on, you would never know if he was telling the truth or not.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:And so I like that idea of play, I like that slightly on edge moment and I think that I think it's going to be really interesting to find that balance for this show, because it is kind of dark but it's also kids play. Yeah, yeah, and so I think it'll be fun to kind of find that teeter teetering point and to really balance on it as much as possible to pull the audience in, but then to always make them laugh at themselves at the end too.
Speaker 2:I see, yeah, yeah. So I don't know if you could answer this fully, but are you thinking of implementing that little cane scene?
Speaker 3:Oh well, there are certain things that you have to have in the show because it's written into a script and you're signing licensing agreements. So once our scripts come in which they were shipped today, oh, awesome. Thanks to MTI's website, so once our scripts come in, we'll be able to verify all the things that we definitely need to keep, and also sometimes in licensing agreements, they tell you certain things that you can't do.
Speaker 3:You have to create things for yourselves as well. So I'm always a good fan of not getting sued, so I'll make sure that I follow those rules too.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. I had such a wonderful time catching up and, especially, I'm so excited for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that I got so much information. And to whoever is listening, jesse, if you could tell us, when is the tickets released? Are they already released?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, so we will probably open up ticket sales in February, mid-February. Our show opens on March 7th. It runs the 7th, 8th, 14th and 15th at the Ontario High School Performing Arts Centre, and all of that information. I think the best way to find out information about our shows, unless you're live on campus at Ontario High School, is to follow us on Instagram or TikTok at Jagspotlights.
Speaker 2:Yes, you heard it here. Folks Grab your tickets when they release and there's no doubt about it. This production is going to be amazing, especially with the new technical stuff, and I hope the students are ready to rumble again. I dislike the time I keep saying it, but it's making me excited talking about it. But thank you so much, jessie, and I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Giorgio.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to Steps to the Stage Drama Depart, a 7th Street Community Theatre podcast. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review and a five-star rating. You can also follow us on Instagram or Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Special thanks to Chino Community Theater and Chino Community Children's Theater for their generous support. Steps to the Stage was created by Joey Rice and Kirk Lane. Logo created by Marlee Lane. Original music by Joey Rice and Devon, your host and producer, giorgio Haddad. Engineering producer Joey Rice. Engineering executive producer Kirk Lane.
