Never ask drama class students about their favorite theater production.
Weston Scott and Keihla Rivera of Righetti and Robert Rancano and Kirsten Appel of Pioneer Valley high schools recently sat outside the hall of Righetti’s drama room and demonstrated exactly why.
“Fiddler on the Roof is in my top five,” Rivera said.
“I thought Little Shop of Horrors would be in there,” Scott said.
“That’s my first,” Rivera said.
Then Rancano and Appel broke in to discuss the merits of the aforementioned productions, as well as present arguments for their own favorites—until someone suddenly remembered why they broke away from their rehearsal in the first place.
“Oh, don’t get us started,” Rancano said. He laid his hands on the table as if to quell further discussion and focus the attention of his fellow students back to the conversation at hand: their joint production of Fiddler on the Roof.
So was it one of their faves prior to joining this production? They all nodded their heads in unison.
Their shared love for the show has helped to smooth what could’ve been a challenging undertaking for the coordinators at both schools. The joint production is under the direction of Shawnah Van Gronigen, Pioneer Valley drama director; and the vocal direction of award-winning Righetti High School choral director Denise Paulus. They enlisted the talent of 50 Righetti and Pioneer Valley high school students. Righetti High School drama director Rob Paulus is set designer and technical director.
Fiddler on the Roof is the classic story of Tevye, a milkman trying to eke out a living while instilling in his five daughters the traditions of his tight-knit Jewish community in the midst of rising racial tensions and changing social values.
[image-2] The genesis of the production came about when Paulus approached Van Gronigen with the idea.
“I’m always looking for something new to do, so I thought, ‘Let’s do it,’” Van Gronigen said.
From that spark, the production caught fire remarkably well. The students believe their respective classes bring unique talents to the production.
“It works out good because [Van Gronigen is] the drama teacher and Mrs. Paulus is the choir teacher,” Rivera said. “We all bring our strengths. We all come together to be one big geek group.”
“It makes it more collaborative,” Scott added.
They did admit, however, that a lot of the students were cautious about joining up and thinking about how they would all interact.
“When it’s a [different] school, you have to be careful not to step on each other’s toes,” Rancano said.
He explained that they know the social etiquette for their own peers but weren’t sure of the other school’s nuances.
“I think they were leery at first,” Van Gronigen said. “Obviously you get two groups with one show, you know the other school’s going to get some parts—that means less parts available for your school. But I think they realize now that everyone’s important to the show and it’s a good ensemble show.”
[image-3] Van Gronigen echoed Rivera’s comments about the collaborative process: “It’s a huge undertaking, but everybody’s good at something and has something they like doing.”
The biggest challenge has actually been, surprisingly enough, transportation to rehearsals, which alternate between Righetti and Pioneer.
“Kids don’t drive any more,” Van Gronigen said. “So it’s been tough getting everybody back and forth. It’s been the only real challenge, but we’re doing it.”
The production has been a positive experience for the students, and they’re confident it will be an excellent performance—despite the occasional rehearsal mistake.
“I think the nature of theater is the mistakes,” Rancano said. “You can mess up, and it’s like, “Oh, that looks great.’ So we can make mistakes and make it so they don’t look like mistakes.”
“Mistakes are the fun part, though,” Appel said.
Arts Editor Shelly Cone makes mistakes look good. Feel free to correct her at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 4-11, 2010.
