“We’re doing the school preview for Northeast Middle School,” said sophomore Alejandro Eduarte, excited that some of the students in The Wiz, Edison High School’s latest theater production, had viewed an Edison play as 8th graders and caught the acting bug.
Eduarte ran sound for The Wiz and is looking forward to assistant-directing and stage managing an original winter production. He was Snoopy last year in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. He’s helped create shows for advocacy organizations. Eduarte may be exceptional but his story underscores the answer to this question:
If a bus load of middle schoolers see a play at Edison, who pays for that bus ride; and why care? The why care, say their arts teachers, is that the public schools are building a feeder system toward interest in and excellence in the arts, and expenses are going to come up that no one budgeted for.
There’s a push on to build a fund for that type of expenses, $5,000 more by year’s end.
“If the [pottery] kiln breaks, there are not the same kind of reserves as for text books,” said Max Athorn, Artistic Director, Thomas Edison High School Theater. Or, while working with an artist in residence on loan, free, from the Guthrie Theater, there might be a need for a canvas drop and the paint for that scenery element in a student-written play.
It’s for those “medium sized” expenses/opportunities that the Thomas Edison High School Fine Arts Legacy Fund was formed, housed within the Edison Community and Sports Foundation (ECSF). They’ve raised $3,000 from 30 donors since May and have an $8,000 goal.
“This is a genuine attempt to draw on investment from a community looking for new ways to engage,” Athorn said. There are artists still in Northeast who graduated from Edison. Athorn told of one recent donor, successful in a career far away, who came back to tour the new auditorium facilities and was impressed.
Parent and former school board member Jill Davis is on the ECSF board and is in charge of the fund. She and her committee will evaluate requests at regular intervals. Prior to the fund being instituted, such needs would go to the school principal to see if she could adjust her budget, or more likely, the folks involved would find outside partners to pay for specific things.
“It started with Carla [Steinbach] becoming sensitive to the fact that the [fine arts] department is growing,” Athorn said, “and Eryn [Warne] has continued. Financial needs grow exponentially. It’s every school for itself, for extended projects.”
An internet search of other Minneapolis high school booster clubs and foundations shows Edison’s fine arts fund is fledgling in size, though many foundations talk of bridging the gap between what the school administration budgets pay for and what teachers and students would like to achieve.
At Southwest High School, a recent annual foundation campaign sought to raise $110,915 to cover all requests (academics, sports and extracurriculars lumped together). Their literature spoke to needing funds for the 9th and 10th grade plays and for guest artists and actors.
South High School’s fine arts portion of their foundation recently provided $40,584 for line items ranging from a few hundred dollars to $8,000, with approximately $5,000 stipends each for a handful of theater professionals.
Roosevelt has a foundation, North High School has an alumni association. Henry has a foundation, incorporated in 1999 as a 501-c-3 non-profit to administer Wallin family scholarships, but now operating to bridge the gap between administration funds and needs, with about $7,000 in requests in Fall 2015. Since its beginnings in early 1984, the Edison Community & Sports Foundation has given over $375,000 in scholarships.
Athorn attributes some of the Edison Fine Arts Department’s success to “stability in the adults” and “the students who are coming along with us.” The teachers have been there three to seven years, “which makes innovation easier,” he said.
Krista Marino, a visual artist in 3-dimensional work, chairs the department. Rachel Hoemke works in 2-D (painting, other such visual arts). Athorn teaches theater during the school day and after school. Stacey Athorn is the choir teacher, Lesley Earles band director, and Raederle Sterling is a theater and English teacher. Dudley Voigt, on contract, works with some of the theater productions.
They’ve been joined by Theo Langason, artist-in-residence from the Guthrie Theater which pays for his time as one of six “shape shifters” [Athorn’s term] in metro area schools. Langason’s three-year commitment will cover working with all Edison classes to integrate arts into unconventional places. For example, he’s worked with new immigrants on poetry, “and really has the resources of the Guthrie at his disposal.” A Guthrie sound board operator did five hours instruction with the students and technical director Karl Reinhardt.
Edison will be hosting a Northeast-wide band performance in spring with the middle schools and lower grades all in one place, something they’ve done twice before. “There was a deep marching band tradition” at Edison when marching bands were more popular nationwide. “We did dust off the uniforms,” Athorn said.
The Wiz finished its short run this past weekend. Next up at Edison is their “winter” play on March 16-18. They will start rehearsing the first week back after winter break. “We’re sourcing already,” Athorn said. It’s student-derived work, built by the company. Jumping off points might be those immigrant-written poems in their own languages, giving the audience an opportunity for “listening for meaning even if you don’t know the words.”
Improv suggestions become scripted work, refined like the storytellers do by repeating and changing to see what works best. They intend to “invite others in. Other teachers are getting curious.”
Eduarte is thinking hard about “how does it extend beyond watch-a-play-and-then-leave. If we wanted to do that, we’d do Othello.” (Othello had been the original plan, before the election process raised much to be worked through.) He’s aware of the Saturday Night Live stereotype of devised work and wants to make clear that the intent is “to give room to connect art and how people feel,” not just things affecting the people carrying the production, but the audience. “Dear Mr. President” is the working title.
The tech upgrade (auditorium makeover and technology improvements the district funded a few years ago) set the stage for doing other things better. Athorn mused, “I’m not sure if the fund [Edison Fine Arts Legacy Fund] would pay for it, but in the abstract: Suppose we needed to hire a choreographer to teach samba,” or other cultural or style specific dance.
The Legacy Fund structure (not to be confused with the state program of a similar name) will allow small gifts to be consolidated for purposes like transportation, and for larger gifts to be channeled.
Donate electronically at: https://www.gofundme.com/edison-high-arts-legacy-fund
Checks can be sent to:
Edison Fine Arts Legacy Fund c/o Edison Community and Sports Foundation
700 22nd Ave NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Below: Alejandro Eduarte left. At intermission during The Wiz, Edison High School’s latest theater production, Alejandro Eduarte, left, Max Athorn and Dudley Voigt at right. (Photos by Margo Ashmore)