Take a little “Glee,” then mix in stage makeup and some let’s-put-on-a-show enthusiasm from an old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland movie. All that energy still wouldn’t add up to what the Meadowdale High School Drama Club has.
Students will take the stage at the school’s Black Box Theater tonight for a second performance of the comedy “You Can’t Take It With You.” The applause should be for saving play productions at their school as much as it is for the 1936 comedy about a family of happy eccentrics.
The George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart play is a Pulitzer Prize winner.
The teen actors are winners, too. The production is proof of triumph in a struggle to keep student plays at Meadowdale despite the budget-cutting loss of a play production class.
Michelle Wilson, an 18-year-old senior and leader of the new drama club, said students learned this past May that the class wouldn’t be offered this year. She and Emma Holton, a junior who plays the lead role of Alice Sycamore in tonight’s show, gathered signatures on a petition asking that the class be spared. They gathered supporters and took their plea to the Edmonds School Board last spring.
“We both went and talked to the board. Nothing seemed to work,” Wilson said.
“You’re forced to make tough choices,” Meadowdale High School Principal Dale Cote said Wednesday. The school’s limited budget and the loss of a drama teacher contributed to the decision to drop the class, he said. It’s a balancing act to provide advanced-placement classes, upper-level foreign language courses and other critical academics, Cote said.
An introductory drama class is offered, but it doesn’t produce plays. Cote hopes to rebuild a drama program within the school day.
“I had several drama students come to my door crying,” said Brenda Holton, Emma’s mother. She and other parents met with Cote after learning the class had been cut. Cote helped find a solution by forming an after-school club to fill the void. For that, an adviser was needed.
“A couple of teachers were willing to be advisers to help students after school,” Cote said. “It’s been a good thing.”
Edmonds School Board member Patrick Shields said the decision to form a drama club rather than have a class “was a function of budget cuts,” and was made within the school in response to austerity measures.
Meadowdale English teacher Alison Ersfeld said that she and art teacher Amanda Wood knew neither of them were up to the task of leading the drama club alone. Together they decided to do it. Like athletic coaches, club advisers are paid a stipend.
Ersfeld sees drama as an important part of high school. “Being able to express themselves, I just think that is vital,” she said. “Kids in the drama program who are in my English classes are standout students. It gives them the opportunity to really stand out and have their voice heard. And it creates a community.”
New to the Meadowdale drama community is professional playwright, director and actor Jeff Stilwell. He was invited to teach the club a two-hour workshop on acting fundamentals. Stilwell, 43, has stayed on as a volunteer. He is helping direct “You Can’t Take It With You.”
His 16th play, “A Dropped Stitch,” was recently produced by the New Space Theater in Shoreline. In the spring, Stilwell plans to guide the teens when they stage “Meadowdale Blooms,” a production of short dramas written and directed by students.
Since meeting several parents of drama club members, Stilwell has heard a lot about joy.
“Their children are coming home with all this pride,” Stilwell said.
They should be proud. They saved the play.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Play tonight
at Meadowdale
The Meadowdale High School Drama Club will present “You Can’t Take It With You” at 7:30 tonight in the school’s Black Box Theater, 6002 168th St. SW in Lynnwood. Cost is $7, $6 with a student body card, and $20 for a family of four.
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