Staging grounds

There’s more to successful theater than footlights and greasepaint. In truth, what you see on stage is like the tip of an iceberg.

In the Central Valley School District, the behind-the-scenes part of the performance gets as many accolades as actors. In fact, it’s the technical training that has students in demand throughout the area’s theater community.

“One of the requirements of our program is that kids put in at least 15 hours of volunteer time with another organization,” Central Valley drama director Michael J. Muzatko said. “It’s been a great experience. We have kids already working out in the community and we have kids who are still here that are working out in the community.

“What the kids are finding out is that these facilities are well beyond what’s out there. For example, we have more than 460 lighting units in this facility; the Opera House has between 150 and 175.”

That was the plan when University and Central Valley high schools were rebuilt.

“If you were to build a theater itself, they’re worth about $4.5 million,” Muzatko said. “When we designed it, we wanted it to be a state-of-the-art facility so that we could bridge the school-to-work transition.

“When Sue Goodrich and I designed this space with the architects, one of the things we had in mind was this should not only be a performance venue, but also a tech-prep learning space.”

At Central Valley High School in particular, technical training is emphasized as much, if not more than performance.

Technical classes are taught during the day and more are offered at night – something only two other high schools in the state offer.

“I love doing productions for this theater,” CV sophomore Jessica Sharpe said. “It’s so amazing. Everybody’s work ethic is so great and they are so charismatic – I love it so much. Honestly, this is what I look forward to after school.”

Sharpe’s first theater experience was last year’s production of Peter Pan. This year she served as stage manager for Nunsense and will play a role in the upcoming production of The Wizard of Oz.

She recommends the experience.

“It’s a great experience,” she said. “It teaches you how to work as a team, set goals and establish a work ethic. I think it’s something everyone can learn from.”

The Central Valley stage has become home to a range of other performance groups.

“Here at CV we have substantially different programs than even at University,” Muzatko said. “We rent our facility out a lot. The kids get a lot of hands-on experience working with professionals on a regular basis.

“Spokane-Coeur d’Alene Opera uses our space. Ballet Spokane has been in residence here. The Spokane Symphony has performed here. The Spokane Youth Orchestra has performed here. We have many dance schools that use this facility for their performances throughout the year. We have a lot of groups that use this space and continue to use this space.”

When outside groups come to use the Central Valley theater, CV students are involved as volunteers, helping stage everything from the ballet to the opera.

Even in the school’s own productions, students work alongside professionals.

“Our pit musicians sit right next to first chairs from the Spokane Symphony,” Muzatko said. “Our kids have worked a lot in the community in the past five years. Our kids have worked with the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater for their college money. We have kids who are in local pits like at the Spokane Civic Theater. It’s such a different animal learning how to work with a pit orchestra instead of a performance group. The kids love it. The professional musicians think it’s a hoot and they’re very practical in their approach to the kids.”

For Peter Pan – a play seen by more than 4,000 people, a school record – the school brought in Flying by Foy, the professional company that made Mary Martin fly in the Broadway production.

“Our kids worked side-by-side with them, working out all the technical aspects of how that all worked,” Muzatko said. “They couldn’t actually fly other students because of insurance restrictions, but they were right there with everything else.”

The company will again work with the production of The Wizard of Oz – with even more actors flying around the stage then flew in Peter Pan.

“We’ve got monkeys, we’ve got crows, we’ve got a stunt witch, we’ve got a cow flying across the stage,” Muzatko said. “Then you have all the tornado technology. Glenda, the Good Witch, is going to fly in over the audience in a bubble.”

“After Peter Pan, I didn’t think there was anything we could do that would top it,” Sharpe said. “We still get great reviews from people who saw it.

“Mike said he wanted to do something to blow Peter Pan right off the stage and then he announced we were doing The Wizard of Oz. My mom already has a check made out to buy tickets for my whole famly.”

Ticket requests for the play started coming in as soon as the production was announced in June. Tickets officially go on sale Feb. 1.

Where drama productions traditionally highlighted actors, at Central Valley, the crew behind the scenes shares top billing.

“The funny part of it is, we’ve seen a whole transition since we’ve been in this facility,” Muzatko said. “We’ve had good tech kids all along – don’t get me wrong. But now, it’s the ‘In’ thing. For instance, for our performance of Nunsense, I had more than 50 kids submit written applications to be on that tech crew. And we had 14 openings. They have to fill in a three-page application.”

With that comes a shared reputation in the theater and film community.

“Now, 10 years later, it’s nice to hear people like the owner of Silhouette Lighting tell me ‘I can tell your kids from a mile away,’ ” Muzatko said. “He said ‘They know what they’re talking about, they have pride in their work, they have work ethic, and they understand what craftsmanship means.’ I feel really good about that.”

For Sharpe, the theater already is in her blood.

“This is something I want to do for the rest of my life,” she said.