Where are you all in the Theater Ensemble arc... growing, taking on more challenging shows? 

Our forward movement is very exciting…lots of challenge. We are growing and getting stronger. Formally adding the musical was huge for the club. The Theater Ensemble is student run and student driven—and our members cried out for the return of the musical so we answered the call. It is among the first steps in our initiative to integrate the theater program at AHS and offer a comprehensive approach to theater education, more possible now that Ensemble can run a full “season.”

After our initial experiment last year with the musical, we were able to combine Ensemble’s strong body of work, and a structure that has been perfected over a long period of time (17 years), with the expertise of the AHS music department, and create an energetic collaboration. This in turn allowed us to create a strong production, a much-expanded endeavor from last year. 

Ensemble made the step to hire Andrea Hart as our overall director, and she's with us this year for all three productions. In addition to directing, she serves as a general coordinator—a big and important step. All these years I have been the sole person in charge, and frankly we had reached a limit as to what I could actually do on my own. Working in collaboration with the Visual and Performing Arts team (Mary Stocker and Craig Bryant), Andrea, and Gail Starr (costume) made this expansion possible. We were also able to hire Bella Qureshi as choreographer.

We have expanded our community outreach. We know that to accomplish a sustainable theater program we will need the entire community, not only for donations, but also for collaborative work and talent sharing. This year we had volunteers from Wood Tech at Laney (Myron Franklin and his master builders); the parent of an AHS TE alum, Alexandra Saur, as well as a local architect, James Gwise, and an AHS graduate who now works at Berkeley Rep, Ben Sandberg, come in to build the stage designed by Ensemble Tech. We also had help from Albany artist Lisa Norman and her children, Ezra and Emma Berger, both former Ensemble members, for publicity.

We are very happy to have a green room/storage area returned to us after so many years. It has made costumes and props so much easier and allowed us to consider storing essential pieces of set instead of having to throw them away after every show then reinvent from scratch. It also allows our tech to really fly. The design section of our tech crew has become just outstanding. We are looking into finding professional workshops and other opportunities to expand and improve. We also initiated a much stronger stage manager position, having the SM make the cue calls like in professional theater. 

Finally, we are exploring opportunities to submit work, and find a foundation for expanding our audience and experience, as well as our recognition.

Where next? What sort of thoughts for next year's musical?

We will start work on planning next season soon, and have collected a lot of data this year that we can use to make decisions about the three productions. The musical in particular will benefit because of the rebirth in interest and talent. The use of live music has made a wonderful difference in the quality of the production as well, so we plan to continue that. And, as always, we will be working toward improving our facility and our equipment. The buzz is back!

What's the funding situation like for theater generally?

That continues to be our biggest struggle—it limits us in every way. It has pushed Ensemble to the edge as far as financing. We have taken the risk and we are holding our breath. Theater Ensemble has never been in the red. Our box office and donations are the only funds we have, so every next production relies on keeping in budget and at least breaking even. Musicals are big and complicated and unpredictable.

The Albany Education Foundation and AHS PTA have been very generous and supportive. Because of our work, they are willing to continue to help us with grants and donations. They have been a great help, and always open to listening to our needs. But, that is still soft money.

With that in mind, it is apparent that we need to find ongoing permanent funding and ensure the presence of theater in our school and for our students. That’s why we are in the beginning stages of creating a non-profit for theater that will fund and support our ongoing theater program, much like the program that exists at Tamalpais HS, where fully a third of the students participate in an award-winning Conservatory Theater Ensemble (CTE) education program that offers a four-year training program in all aspects of theatrical production.

So our team is looking for people with knowledge, interest, and /or time, to help create the non-profit, and people who would like to serve on the Board. We are hoping to get it started as soon as possible, and we have identified some major goals. 

First we are working to provide funding and support for ongoing performances, including training and experience in all aspects of theater. We need funding to be able to pay professionals to work with our students, and to be able to pay stipends to our staff members who work with the program. We need the autonomy to be able to make it happen in the best and most efficient way.

Our second goal is to reinstate crucial theater classes to the high school and hire professionally trained theater educators to teach them—this is crucial to the development of a strong program.

Our third is to continue to foster and expand collaboration among the arts classes, and art professionals, and to create more opportunity for cross-curricular and community collaboration.

Fourth, and finally, we're searching for dedicated performance space and rehearsal spaces.