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South Medford High School senior Kristen Stone, as Meg, rehearses a scene with sophomore Bri Gonzalez (Babe) in South Medford's summer stock production of "Crimes of the Heart." Rogue Valley Teen Theater, a new summer program at South, is producing three plays. Teens take stock of summer Everyone works in three-play productionBY VICKI GUARINO
This is a dress rehearsal and Bri Gonzalez is reading her lines from the script. She just found out Monday that she has a leading role in "Crimes of the Heart." The show opens Friday.On stage just inches away from Gonzalez, a South Medford High School sophomore, senior Emily Lewis and sophomore Erin Stephenson are hammering on a window for the set of "Blithe Spirit." That show opens next week.Nearby, director Katherine Hayes is daubing blue paint on a small wooden table for "Steel Magnolias." That show opens Saturday.Meanwhile, program head Nancy MacLaren is having second thoughts about handing off her car keys to Spin Sutherland to run an errand for supplies. "Do you have your license with you?" she asks. "Do you even have a license?" She also wants to know about pecans. In the shell. The nuts are a needed prop that no one has been able to find, despite two days of searching. It turns out that pecans are out of season. Would peanuts be an acceptable stand-in? What about walnuts? The last days of rehearsal always are chaotic, MacLaren insists. Then she laughs and concedes, "No, it's not quite as bad as this."This is a new summer theater program at South Medford High School: Rogue Valley Teen Theater. The scene is particularly jumbled because the 15-member troupe is putting on three plays at once. Usually, South manages one show at a time. By Friday, theater members must have lines ready, sets together and floor space in South's Little Theater, off Barnett Road, cleared for the first audience of the two-week summer stock series. MacLaren, South's drama teacher, has run summer stock companies for college students. But she has never attempted such a project for high schoolers.Not only would Rogue Valley Teen Theater allow students to earn credit and gain stage practice, she reasoned, but it could be a welcome diversion."They get very bored," MacLaren says. "They all complain, `There's nothing to do, blah blah blah.' And I get bored too." So, months ago, she started putting together the summer program. The Medford School District allowed her group the run of the Little Theater stage area. Students chipped in $150 each to pay for supplies and a small stipend to MacLaren.The idea is to pay the bills and break even with ticket sales, says cast member Nichole Yates. Nichole is among a handful of former South students who have come back to school for the summer stock program. She graduated in June. Another graduate is Katherine Hayes, who directed South's production of "The Glass Menagerie" during her senior year in 1998.She is a junior now at Northwestern University in Illinois, studying biology. This is her first step back into theater since leaving Medford.Being a director in summer stock, she says, demands diverse skills. No job, it seems, is too minor. "I find props," she says, paintbrush in hand. "I find costumes. I'm going out for a wig later." All that on top of working with her actors in "Steel Magnolias." MacLaren is directing the other two plays. Rogue Valley Teen Theater is nearly a full-time job. Everyone has at least one role in one of the plays, plus technical support duties.Since July 5, the group has been working daily from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. For Spin, a junior, the summer program is giving him his first chance to act. He usually works behind the scenes on plays and sings in concerts. He has won a role in South's presentation of "Guys and Dolls" next fall and says the summer experience will help him with the musical.The long summer days in school suit Erin, a South junior, because she can concentrate on the productions without the distractions of other classes and school activities.Besides, she says. "I just really wanted something to do for the summer." |
