North County High Schools Shine in Student Theater

The cast of Hazelwood East's upcoming musical, Nunsense, practice their lines.

The shrill buzz of a chop saw cuts through an already raucous atmosphere at McCluer High School. It’s 3:45pm and school is out for the day, but the hallways still teem with busy students. In one classroom, dancers meticulously practice their steps. In another, actors run through their lines. And in the warren of workspaces surrounding the Little Theatre, crew members gleefully sing along to blaring show tunes while painting and building an impressive array of sets.

You wouldn’t know it by the negative publicity that often overshadows local high schools, but North County is actually home to some of the finest student theater in the St. Louis area. Over the past four years, graduates from McCluer alone have earned nearly $750,000 in college theater scholarships, with several former students now working professionally in feature films and on Broadway.

North County schools have also racked up numerous awards in the competitive “Cappies” student critic program, including Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Play, often beating out theater programs with much larger budgets.

At Hazelwood East, where more than 100 kids participate in drama club, the Spartan Players are furiously preparing for their spring musical, Nunsense, which premieres on February 5. It’s their third production of the school year, following the fall comedy You Can’t Take It With You, and bubbly junior Antoinette Blaine has been cast as Mother Superior (one of five leads), despite never performing before.

“This is my first year ever, in any play, but I told myself before I graduated I would audition,” she says proudly. “I’m so glad I did.”

Exzavion Powells, who’s playing Sister Robert Anne, is also thrilled to be involved. He even hopes to study theater in college. “I want to learn everything about theater – blocking, building sets, everything,” he says. “I love it.”

His teacher Ken Franke, a Hazelwood East alum who serves as technical director of the school’s drama department alongside director Holly Potthoff, estimates that five or six members of the current junior class will actually become theater majors in college. “We have a good group right now, so you never know,” he says. “Every year, we look at the student pool and try to expose the kids to works that they probably aren’t familiar with…to really address their needs and talents.”

Once the productions are selected, students can work on them both in class and after school, with many aiming to earn entry into the Thespian Troupe 1220 national honor society.

Student crews work together to build sets for Nunsense behind the scenes at Hazelwood East.

Over at McCluer, the approach is similarly “co-curricular,” meaning students can take classes in set design or acting and then use their learned skills to help produce school plays. McCluer also has its own honors troupe, #787, directed by teacher Doug Erwin.

Like Franke, Erwin collaborates with another pro to choose specific shows for his roughly 70 drama students. He and technical theater teacher Erica Pegues strive to select plays that will stretch the kids and expose them to diverse viewpoints, endowing them with “life skills they can take to any career they choose.”

“If we teach them anything, I hope it’s developing a critical eye, cultivating a love of theater and coming up with creative solutions to a problem,” he says. “It’s also very important that they understand an ensemble ethic and what it means to work on a team.”

Erwin, a North County native who has been involved in performing arts since he was 12, cemented his “ensemble ethic” while studying Japanese theater through the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program. “Everyone in a production is equally valuable – that’s what the Japanese recognize,” he says. “When one of our cast members is not in a scene, they’re automatically part of the crew. We don’t tolerate divas here.”

McCluer's drama program is based out of the school's aptly named Little Theatre.

Erwin also supports non-traditional casting, reflecting the diversity of his students. “We don’t care what race you are or what role you’re supposed to play,” he says. “In fact, for Bat Boy [McCluer’s April musical], we only have one rule: you can’t play your own race or gender.”

It’s this kind of progressive thinking that has really propelled the McCluer drama program, allowing it to be recognized on a national level. In 2009, the school was one of only six in the US to receive permission to perform the Laramie Project Epilogue, a compelling show about the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man.

At the end of February, McCluer will also become the first high school in the country to perform August Wilson’s 20^th Century, a collection of ten short plays chronicling the African-American experience. And not only are students there staging and directing the production, they’re also required to study its history.

Students gain practical skills working in the McCluer theater workshop.

“I’ve learned so much in the drama program,” McCluer sophomore Nicole McDuffie says. “It’s been a great social experience and lots of fun, but I also think it’s prepared me in other ways. Sometimes it just makes you see the world a little differently.”

But can it make the world see North County high schools in a new light? Erwin thinks so. “I’ve had parents tell me they wish that everywhere ran the way our theater group does, because it’s so integrated and the kids are so accepting of one another,” he says.

Camilla Hodgson, Hazelwood East’s student director of Nunsense, also sees the positive impact. “A lot of people put our school down, saying it’s nothing but troublemakers,” she says. “But if they’d just come out and watch us, they’d see how talented we are and how hard we work. They may not believe it, but I know we can do anything we set our minds to.”

To see North County’s talented student thespians in action, why not attend one of these upcoming shows? For many performances, tickets are just $5.

Nunsense, Hazelwood East – February 5-6, 7pm

Urinetown, McCluer, February 18-20, 7pm

Once Upon a Mattress, Pattonville High School – February 19-20, 7pm

An Evening with August Wilson, McCluer – February 25, 7pm

The Wizard of Oz, Incarnate Word Academy – February 25-27, 7:30pm

Guys & Dolls, McCluer North – March 11-13, 7pm

Bat Boy: The Musical, McCluer, April 8-10, 7pm

Twelve Angry Jurors, Hazelwood East – April 15-17, 7pm

Little Shop of Horrors, Hazelwood West, April 21-24, 7pm

Fiddler on the Roof, Lutheran North – April 22-23, 7pm

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Hazelwood Central – April 22-24, 7pm

One-Act Plays, McCluer North – April 22-24, 7pm

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