St. Joseph High School is one of numerous educational institutions forced to pull art programs during the budget struggle of the last decade. The private school in Orcutt recently rekindled its drama program, which went by the wayside eight years ago, and will produce its first production since the program restarted last semester, Where There’s a Will, There’s a Murder.
History and drama teacher Iain Freckleton, who restarted the program last year, said that the school considered him for the job due in part to his theater experience. Years of involvement in the Santa Maria Civic Theatre and other local groups qualified Freckleton to help get the school’s drama department back on its feet and back on stage.
“The school is really supportive; they really wanted me on board to see things get started; they really want to see a production done and want to see it succeed,” Freckleton said. “The kids want it, and they are really busy here, but they want this opportunity as well.”
Almost all of the students enrolled in St. Joseph’s drama class—and the group of students only in the drama club—are involved with a number of extracurricular activities, Freckleton explained. Most play some kind of sport, he said, and all of them are involved in community service.
The collection of busy freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors make time to rehearse, organize other aspects of the production, and promote the show after daily classes are over. Allowing the students to run the show is a valuable learning experience for the teenage performers, Freckleton said.
“It’s really cool to see them experiment with this, that’s why I wanted to have a student director, a student stage manager, all those different roles, to give the kids the experience of trying to manage this whole thing,” he said. “So, I’m trying to be like an advisor more so than the director. I’m here to facilitate and get the little stuff done like help communicate between the kids and the parents.”
The amount of work necessary to stage a production isn’t apparent until the task is at hand. The amount of resources needed, and work required in acquiring them, came as a surprise to the St. Joseph Drama Club Treasurer Maya Delatorre, a sophomore who’s also directing the show.
“It’s a lot more difficult than I thought it would be,” she said. “We needed a lot of help from parents and stuff, so I wasn’t expecting that.”
Helpful parents donated furniture for the set and household items as props, Delatorre explained. The group had to scramble to find a venue as well, with the St. Louis de Montfort Parish Hall serving as the stage for the upcoming production.
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Murder is a comedic murder mystery, Delatorre said, that centers on a group of unwitting family members invited to an island for the reading of a will. Once the eager relatives learn that their collected inheritance is up for grabs, people start disappearing.
“I think it’s obvious who did it, but I’ve read it like 18 times,” she said. “You’re supposed to wonder, and it has some dramatic bits, but it’s mostly really funny.”
The St. Joseph drama class and club members will provide two live performances of Where There’s a Will, There’s a Murder. Students will fill out the cast onstage as well as the crew backstage, Freckleton explained, and for some of them, it’s their first time involved in a live stage production.
“Most of them have never done this before, so we are learning from the ground up,” he said. “The kids are super enthusiastic about it; they want a good audience and want to show off what they can do.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne is glad to see art back in the schools. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 21-28, 2015.
