Cover story: An artful endeavor -- The Sequoia high school district gets serious about the performing arts Cover story: An artful endeavor -- The Sequoia high school district gets serious about the performing arts (December 15, 2004)

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

Communities in southern San Mateo County may never lay claim to a proper theater district, but a reasonable alternative may be "district" theaters.

The Sequoia Union High School District is well along in its plans to build professional-grade performing arts centers at each of the district's four comprehensive high schools.

The new $15 million, 500-seat theater at Woodside High School is set to open in January. Similar facilities are planned for Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton and Carlmont High School in San Carlos.

In Redwood City, the district recently spent $9.6 million to renovate Sequoia High School's Carrington Hall, which seats 800.

"We are very excited to move into this facility," says Woodside Principal Linda Common. "The performing arts options are enormous" -- including musical theater, dance, lectures and variety shows -- and Ms. Common says she hopes to rent it to community groups as well.

With current acting classes being held in an ordinary classroom, Woodside drama teacher Barry Woodruff says he is looking forward to a room unhampered by school desks. "It's a huge opportunity and we're just learning about it," Mr. Woodruff says, adding that he expects training for teachers in the use of the theater to begin in mid-January.

In the rehearsal room, furniture will be optional during class and the big stage will be right there if needed. Mr. Woodruff says he anticipates having experts come in to teach stage arts such as building and painting sets.

In addition to musical theater, students are interested in doing straight plays, he says. During the summers, he may bring in local playwrights with original work.

When the dust settles in about four years, the district will have used voter-approved construction bond funds to build performing arts halls and equipment worth about $50 million, says Ed LaVigne, the district's financial officer.

While student uses will have priority, the renting of the theaters by the surrounding communities is very much in the plans.

Such events "will be welcomed with open arms," Mr. LaVigne told the Almanac. "We want (the theaters) to be anchors. We want them to be the basis around which the community revolves."

For eighth-graders accustomed to performing on a stage in a multi-use room, theaters with stadium seating and all the amenities may be strong magnets, a not-inconsequential consideration for public high schools in vigorous competition with local private high schools.

Sacred Heart Schools in Atherton just opened a new 350-seat facility. In Portola Valley, the Woodside Priory School plans a 400-seat theater.
Dramatic advantages?

Every day on high school campuses that lack theaters there are acting classes going on. Many take place in what San Mateo High School drama teacher Brad Friedman calls "cafetoriums," multi-use rooms with a stage at one end. Is a theater really necessary?

In Woodside, the elementary school district spent $1.5 million in 2002 to upgrade Sellman Auditorium. The community is occasionally invited there when Woodside Community Theater puts on a production.

"I don't know how much (a theater) matters," says Mr. Friedman. The critical factors are the credentials of the drama teacher, an effective booster organization to sell tickets and build sets, and a commitment by the teacher and students to high acting standards, he says.

"But you can ask students to hold to those standards anywhere," Mr. Friedman says. "To be honest, (the boosters) are more important than the theater."

A theater does confer certain advantages, however. Students learn to perform in a large space, which can help in pursuing a drama career, Mr. Friedman says. A theatrical working space "is just one more little thing to live up to, to fill that space in as professional a way as we can."

The Woodside High theater will have that space and more. The orchestra pit is an elevator that can be raised 8 feet to form a semi-circular "apron" extending the front edge of the stage. Ensuring that the stage-apron junction is seamless time after time are 35 piers anchored 65 feet below ground in stabilized earth, said project superintendent Dennis Sudano.

This theater has a fly tower -- a soaring rectangular space that rises above the backstage area to store backdrops out of the way until they're needed. But unlike the days of sandbags on ropes pulled by stage hands, the rigging at Woodside is motorized, allowing one person with a stationary or laptop computer to raise or lower up to seven backdrops.

Computers will also control two banks of overhead lights and the sound system. The overhead space slopes toward the stage with banks of acoustic panels; other behind-the-scenes work spaces that would absorb sound are furnished with acoustic curtains.

Adjoining the main stage is a spacious rehearsal room with its own control booth, lights and curtain, allowing the room to serve a dual purpose as a cozy performance space.

The music-practice rooms solve the musicians' storage problems with file cabinets designed for sheet music and lockers designed for musical instruments large and small.

Cinema classes will be able to show DVD movies on a large screen, and the control booth will have basic audio and video recording equipment.

Principal Linda Common sees a bright future, with two theatrical productions a year and classes in musical theater, scene building and theater technology. The stage will be there for dance, choir, drill team and spirit squad performances, as well as monthly poetry readings, variety shows, eighth-grade orientations and scientific lectures, says Ms. Common.

And she hopes to create a booster organization: "We need to get a group of parents who want to help with the production end of the shows."
Community access

Theater space becomes an asset to its users and to whoever collects the rent. "The first goal is for school use," says Mr. LaVigne, but when the schools aren't using them, the Sequoia district plans to open the theaters to people and organizations in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.

School foundations, PTAs, local beauty pageants, theater groups on tour, and entrepreneurs selling "software to beat the stock market" will all be welcome, says Mr. LaVigne. "People are going to be knocking down our doors."

"Our kids have top priority," says Ms. Common. "We will not book anyone who takes away from our own school events." But eventually, she says, Woodside will rent the theater on open evenings and weekends.

"Since it is not completely built, we need to get into the facility to see exactly what is needed (by way of technical expertise). We are not booking anything for the facility until we can do that."

Asked what a 500-seat theater would cost to rent for one night, Mr. LaVigne says he hasn't worked that out yet, but added that a manager at the Little Fox Theater told him it's $5,000 to $7,000 a night just to heat and light the place for an audience.

These figures seemed "not outrageous" to Nick Nichols production director of San Jose Repertory Theatre. Asked if it is difficult to run a theater and make a profit, Mr. Nichols replied, "Yes, very."

The Sequoia district is in negotiations with the city of Menlo Park regarding a $2 million to $3 million investment in Menlo-Atherton's theater in exchange for some combination of free usage of the theater, reduced-price usage or a guaranteed number of days, says Don Gielow, former interim superintendent of the Sequoia district who now oversees new district construction.

Wanted: Theater manager(s)

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

A transition appears to be in store for the Sequoia Union High School District, albeit a gradual one. In four years, the district will be managing and operating four performing arts centers with a total value of at least $50 million, all paid for by voter-approved construction bonds.

A new 500-seat theater is scheduled to open at Woodside High in January. At Sequoia High in Redwood City, the district recently spent $6 million to upgrade Carrington Hall, which seats 800.

Menlo-Atherton High School will have a new 500-seat theater when school opens in 2007, as will Carlmont High School in San Carlos about a year later.

The district is accustomed to managing schools, but what is involved in managing theaters?

Among a theater manager's duties are showing the space to prospective users, arranging contracts, going to meetings, and ensuring that things are shipshape before locking the doors, says Peter Berner, who manages the Little Fox Theater in Redwood City. "Managing is hard," he says.

Nick Nichols, the production director at the San Jose Repertory Theatre, says that in addition to a manager, a basic staff would include a master electrician and a stage operations supervisor.

The Sequoia district hasn't made any staffing decisions yet but plans to gradually move toward full-time use of the theaters, says Ed LaVigne, the Sequoia district's financial officer.

"We are concerned about staffing," Mr. LaVigne says, but "we're not prepared to hire one full-time manager for Woodside where (he or she) wouldn't have other responsibilities." The manager would be expected to interact with a contact person on each campus, Mr. LaVigne says.

"It's going to be hard for one person to cover four facilities," Mr. Berner predicts. "I don't care what his expertise is."

Asked about the feasibility of one manager for four theaters, Mr. Nichols of San Jose Rep replied: "Absolutely not!"

"I do understand that money is obviously an issue; however, I would prefer not to go this route," says Woodside Principal Linda Common. "One person cannot be in four different places at a time. This would limit the productions that could happen on each site."

Computerized lighting, sound and rigging systems, such as those that are being installed in the Woodside center, could be controlled by a single experienced stage hand, Mr. Berner says.

"Until each theater could (pay for) itself, I would rather raise money to bring in someone to handle each production," Ms. Common says. "You cannot turn over a theater of this size to just anyone; you need an expert.

"It would be my goal to make enough money to pay someone to come to school around 3 p.m. and stay on the evenings that we have programs," she says. "Our teaching and custodial staff can learn about sound and some lighting to use the facility. But for productions you need a professional. I think there are people who are trained in theaters who would love a job like that."

Don Gielow, former Sequoia district interim superintendent and its point man on issues concerning new capital assets, says the district will likely contract for experienced stage hands as needed. As for managers: "Ultimately, we will need a manager per theater, but we'll have to build up to that," he says.

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