Excessive College Drama at
Santa Barbara, Dos Pueblos,
and San Marcos
Historic Shift on Stage,
with Three Ladies on the Helm
By Callie Fausey | Images by Ingrid Bostrom
September 7, 2023
Prologue
Three excessive faculties, all alike in dignity, in truthful Santa Barbara, the place we lay our scene, from historical theatrics break to new academics, the place inventive girls direct inventive teenagers.
For the primary time within the Santa Barbara Unified College District’s historical past, going again a century, all three excessive faculties — Santa Barbara, San Marcos, and Dos Pueblos — have a complete forged of feminine theater administrators.
Quoting Shakespeare could also be overdramatic, but it surely appeared becoming. Highschool, notoriously, is stuffed with drama and clichés.
On the threat of sounding like an adolescent’s inside monologue in a coming-of-age film, graduating from junior excessive’s relative innocence and stumbling into the intersection of self-consciousness and self-realization in a rabble of uncertainty and angst would drive anybody to melodramatics.
However, in any other case, I liked my time at Santa Barbara Excessive College.
Not less than, I liked the theater. I used to be by no means on stage — save for one theater class and a failed audition — however I did stage tech and loved exploring the area (together with sneaking into the rafters, the place issues like “intercourse” adopted by a smiley face had been crudely spray-painted on air vents).
It was a welcome escape from the trials and tribulations of teenagedom.
However I digress.
The lead roles in Santa Barbara Unified’s highschool drama program are performed by Shannon Saleh at San Marcos, Emily Libera at Dos Pueblos, and Gioia Marchese at Santa Barbara.
They gave me a “behind-the-scenes” take a look at what it’s like to show and encourage Santa Barbara’s youngsters to precise creativity with confidence — in addition to what productions to count on this 12 months.
“There are simply three of us, and our job is tremendous distinctive,” Saleh defined. “We want one another.”
Act I: Lifelong Theater Youngsters
About 5 minutes into our interview, a few boys shuffled into Saleh’s workplace at San Marcos. She advised them she couldn’t chat in the mean time, however not with out including, “I’m so joyful to see you!”
She left her door open, she defined, as a result of she missed her college students. Open-door insurance policies are widespread within the realm of highschool drama, the place college students deal with the theater as a sanctuary.
“We barely have alone time all through the day — possibly until we’re utilizing the restroom,” laughed Libera.
In theater, there isn’t any built-in really feel of classroom hierarchy. Though many academics go above and past for his or her college students, theater academics see extra alternatives for bonding.
“We don’t need to put them in rows and desks,” Saleh defined. “We don’t have the identical form of check-the-box requirements that loads of core topics need to have; we get to be inventive.”
“Theater is about threat, and taking private dangers to make one thing lovely,” Libera added. “That’s additionally a factor that you simply don’t need to do in different courses. You don’t need to threat to do math.”
Nevertheless it’s additionally extremely rewarding, Marchese defined.
“I simply love watching these people proper on the level the place they’re going to launch out on their very own,” she stated.
Nonetheless, with these rewards comes a chaotic schedule. Their instructing lives are, in additional methods than one, dramatic. Saleh began auditions for her fall play on the second day of faculty. Libera and Marchese are on an analogous timeline.
They work odd hours, late nights, on weekends, and generally early within the morning.
“Life stability — I haven’t figured that piece out but,” Libera stated.
However she may have time: “Folks stay and die in these applications.” At that, Saleh known as her dramatic. However Saleh herself is a primary instance.
All three administrators had been “tried-and-true” theater children. Say what you’ll about theater children, however they’re undoubtedly devoted to the craft.
Though all of them grew up on stage, Saleh is the veteran director. For our interview, she wore her assured credo “I Am Kenough” T-shirt (from the Barbie film), after checking its coolness along with her male college students. “They usually had been like, ‘Completely,’ ” she stated.
She’s beginning her sixth 12 months at San Marcos, however she bought her begin on the town in 1997 with a place at La Colina Junior Excessive. She’s acted on the town for years, fostering a ardour for performing arts that she by no means grew out of. In highschool, she spent each summer time instructing kids’s theater.
When you’re in, it’s exhausting to get out, Saleh stated, including, “You get a little bit bit addicted.” She highlighted that Libera is a “fricking wonderful” singer and performer, they usually each get pleasure from having the ability to use their skills to show children.
Libera, hailing from Santa Barbara, nurtured her theater ardour in her hometown. Her lifelong devotion to performing led her by La Colina, the place Saleh was really her theater director.
“Neither of us has aged in any respect,” Libera joked. “We’re simply wanting younger and beautiful perpetually.”
It’s only one instance of full-circle funding in theater — college students who be a part of often keep concerned till commencement, and, oftentimes, come again to work or volunteer as alums.
For Libera, her theater administrators helped her discover her voice and her confidence, and he or she now desires to go that on to the following technology.
“I knew Emily when she was little, and now she’s like this so competent, succesful, fabulous, kicking-butt lady,” Saleh chimed.
Going to San Marcos after junior excessive, Libera thrived below the steerage of David Holmes, who retired in 2014 after his farewell manufacturing of the camp traditional The Rocky Horror Image Present.
Native operas and productions earmarked Libera’s on-stage upbringing, resulting in a grasp’s from UCSB and an early directing profession at La Cumbre Junior Excessive. Each she and Saleh transitioned from instructing English to theater, “which performs completely into theater stuff, making written materials come alive. It’s only a pure segue,” Libera defined.
With Clark Sayre’s retirement, Libera eagerly embraced the possibility to helm Dos Pueblos’ esteemed theater program, realizing her directing aspirations.
Final 12 months was her inaugural 12 months at Dos Pueblos, which she hailed as an unimaginable journey. Her first
manufacturing on the faculty was The Plot, Like Gravy, Thickens, a thriller by Billy St. John.
“The children are wonderful and welcoming,” Libera stated. “They usually don’t give me any points with the truth that I went to San Marcos.”
Like Libera, Marchese can be a product of Santa Barbara, now following within the footsteps of longtime director Otto Layman at Santa Barbara Excessive.
Her journey started at Montecito College of Ballet. In 4th grade, she was taken below the wing of the then-soon-to-be Dos Pueblos Excessive College (DPHS) theater director Sayre, who forged her in her first youth theater present and helped her uncover her love for theater.
Later, she attended Santa Barbara Excessive College (SBHS), however left to briefly chase an appearing profession in New York Metropolis, finally shifting to deal with choreography and directing, producing impartial movies and directing performs in native theaters in New York and L.A. (she even has an IMDb web page).
When she reached her mid-thirties, she was prepared for a transition. Her choice to maneuver residence was serendipitous, catalyzed by a name from Sayre, a longtime pal and mentor.
“He known as me out of the blue and requested if I might need time to work on a present he was doing at Dos Pueblos,” Marchese defined.
She was in between gigs on the time, so she determined, why not? She didn’t look forward to finding her calling, however she by no means left.
For 12 years, Marchese labored alongside Sayre and choreographed for him on reveals similar to Tarzan, Mary Poppins, and Newsies.
Sayre really helpful Marchese get her instructing credential so she might fill his footwear after he retired. However proper as his job opened up, Libera utilized for an interdistrict switch and bought the spot.
At first, Marchese was disheartened. Then Justin Baldridge, who ran the SBHS program from 2020 to 2022 after Layman, left for a job in Los Angeles, and Marchese started her first 12 months at SBHS along with her personal program. “I really feel like all the pieces labored out the best way it was alleged to,” she stated.
Santa Barbara Excessive’s theater program goes by a form of “renaissance,” Marchese famous, as she establishes a brand new presence and program for the varsity, within the wake of Layman’s 25-year tenure.
My very own reminiscence of Layman’s theater class is tied to at least one occasion. On the tender age of 15, after going by a devastating breakup with my boyfriend of possibly two weeks, Layman paired us collectively to behave out a scene as our remaining undertaking. The script was — to my then-horror and now-amusement — a couple of couple breaking apart.
Marchese can be rebuilding this system after the common COVID-19 tough patch. And he or she’s not the one one: Libera and Saleh admitted that instructing in the course of the pandemic was “soul-sucking.”
“Nevertheless it was vital to remain linked to children,” Saleh stated, including that she even managed to drag collectively an outside manufacturing of Mamma Mia! Nevertheless it was exhausting to show such a social artwork type whereas social distancing.
Marchese continues to be discovering her footing, however she is eagerly offering her college students with the chance to flex their inventive muscle tissue and “excavate the depths of their humanity,” within the phrases of the varsity’s theater webpage.
Her productions final 12 months had been The Crucible and Rocky Horror.
“The freshman class is, abruptly, twice as huge as final 12 months when it comes to signups,” she stated. “So I really feel prefer it’s undoubtedly coming again.”
Regardless that every of the trio all has their very own most well-liked taste of theater and modus operandi, they’re the identical “within the coronary heart of all of it,” Libera defined. “It simply looks like all of us love what we do.”
A noticeable shift in operations between the previous and current eras was the lack of aggressive edge. Saleh definitely felt that stress soften away with Marchese and Libera’s arrivals: They’re a tight-knit group who can relate to one another’s joys and struggles and attain out in the event that they ever want help. “Which may be very totally different from after I began,” Saleh stated. “When it was me and the 2 boys.”
“There was a little bit little bit of prickliness,” she added. “We’re not having it — they’re doing an superior job instructing. I need to take my children to see their stuff.”
With girls heading all three highschool theater departments for the primary time, Marchese stated it’ll be fascinating to see how all of them develop, “but it surely’s fairly monumental and thrilling for our group.”
Act II: Supporting Roles
Because it seems, it’s extremely costly to place collectively a highschool theater manufacturing. It prices roughly $35,000 per present, they usually don’t even pay the actors. The administrators are thrilled in the event that they’re in a position to simply break even on ticket gross sales, which, alongside promoting, solely cowl a fraction of the particular manufacturing prices.
They find yourself dedicating their very own time to fundraising and budgeting, with a few small stipends from the district yearly to rent different obligatory tech, costume, and musical workers. However they’re anticipated to stretch skinny to cowl two primary reveals.
Elevating cash to cowl manufacturing prices and complement workers stipends is, as Marchese put it, a full-time job in and of itself.
“To be trustworthy, the varsity district doesn’t worth arts besides of their wording,” Saleh stated.
The others echoed that sentiment. Nonetheless, they emphasised that the present administrations at their particular person websites have been nothing however supportive (though Santa Barbara Excessive is in flux, following principal Elise Simmons’s resignation in August).
“My principal, Invoice Woodard, is a giant fan,” Libera stated. “He’s understanding of the chaos that’s operating a theater division and is able to give me what I have to make it work.”
Libera stated she want to see the varsity district’s vocal help translated onto paper within the type of funding for the entire program, all the pieces from energy drills to paychecks.
The turnover for help workers is excessive as a result of the pay just isn’t livable, she defined, and the work is strenuous, making it exhausting for his or her applications to develop. “We wrestle to maintain these actually proficient tech administrators that college students look as much as,” Libera stated.
“We’re one individual, and it’s so much to do already, with out a workers, after which even with the little workers we’re in a position to rent out of our personal fundraising.”
Getting folks to stay round crosses into the dialog round housing in Santa Barbara — Marchese can’t even afford to stay within the neighborhood the place she teaches.
“You already know, there’s at all times the expectation within the arts that it’s so enjoyable, that’s form of your reward,” she stated. “If you happen to don’t need to do the additional work, someone else will at all times need that place.
“However I feel all three of us actually love what we do, and are actually dedicated to what we do. However persons are beginning to acknowledge that they need to be compensated pretty for the hours that they’re placing in…. I feel Shannon and Emily and I are all skilled to work collectively to enhance these issues, the place we will, little by little.”
It’s tough to check it to the district’s sports activities applications, the place video games promote out stadiums, buttressed by a nationwide tradition of built-in help for athletics. However whereas the district lately shelled out almost $30 million to complete the (granted, long-overdue) renovations on Santa Barbara Excessive College’s 93-year-old stadium, most of the faculty’s performing arts areas stay in a sorry state.
Marchese stated that former SBHS principal Simmons had indicated plans for a marketing campaign to repair up the theater. However now that she’s gone, Marchese doesn’t know the place these plans stand.
“We simply don’t have area to deal with all of the applications we have now, and our theater may be very outdated and fairly worn-down,” Marchese stated.
Santa Barbara Unified Superintendent Hilda Maldonado defined that the district is engaged on a brand new strategic arts plan to help theater, dance, music, and visible arts. They needed to put it on maintain final 12 months, however she hopes to carry it to the varsity board within the coming months.
“So far as the theater program, the academics do an unimaginable job. We might by no means help them sufficient, however, that stated, I feel that there’s much more that we should be doing for theater,” Maldonado stated. “Bettering our performing arts amenities, notably. However I’m actually pleased with what our academics do, and I’ve gone to a number of the performs in previous years. I’m hoping to go to extra of them.”
What the district lacks in help, the scholars and their group work exhausting to make up for.
College students eagerly tackle duties similar to designing and sustaining the theater’s net pages and social media accounts, constructing units, and promoting adverts for the applications.
It takes a number of the weight off the administrators’ overburdened shoulders and supplies college students with alternatives to be taught what it means to supply a present, which they’ll then go all the way down to the following cohort.
“We lean so much on dad or mum help,” Libera added.
When Saleh didn’t have a tech man to assist her educate her stagecraft class final 12 months, she had a carpenter are available in to teach college students for the primary two weeks. Libera chimed in to ask how she had employed him.
“He was only a dad who occurred to be a end carpenter,” Saleh replied.
“I’ve a dad like that,” Libera stated.
She added, “We like to make the most of the group gallery and contain dad and mom, people who find themselves captivated with training and the humanities. Mother and father had been actually useful this final 12 months, and hopefully extra this 12 months.”
“Everyone cares a lot about theater and children that they pour in, and that helps us to keep up,” Saleh stated.
Mother or father volunteers based the Santa Barbara Excessive College Theater Basis in 2005 to help theater arts. They assist with the excessive prices of buying manufacturing rights for reveals, changing tools, and repairing the theater — similar to changing the lower-level seats and upgrading the lighting system.
Different nonprofits, such because the Basis for Santa Barbara Excessive College and the Santa Barbara Bowl Basis, have additionally donated to the survival of the humanities in Santa Barbara Unified. Mother and father assist, but when the administrators need to produce reveals on a scale they need for his or her college students, that always requires hiring professionals and, in fact, loads of fundraising.
“God bless Santa Barbara Bowl Basis,” Saleh expressed, talking for all three of them. “They settle for grant requests from us for each semesters, and which will solely fund the piano participant, but it surely’s nonetheless so useful to have any help in any respect.”
As Marchese sees it, she’s slowly gathering help for her program. “And I feel over time, as I get to know the households and the group, that can simply develop,” she stated.
Act III: Showtime
Every division is on a good schedule to maintain its fall manufacturing on observe, as every one takes 9 to 10 weeks to place collectively.
“And that’s by the pores and skin of your enamel,” Saleh defined. “I would like all the minutes to do it.”
Which means all the pieces from the set constructing to the staging to the appearing. Saleh is placing on The Curious Incident of the Canine within the Night time-Time at San Marcos this fall, which might be her first drama. She defined that it’s a fantastically written play concerning the mind of a boy with autism, and the way folks on the earth reply to him and the way he responds to his world.
“My boys final 12 months had been begging me to do a drama,” she stated. “However this has comedy in it. It’s a very distinctive, particular play that requires a selected form of compassion. I’m very excited to begin that.”
Libera’s focus for the start of the varsity 12 months is Nearly, Maine, a play concerning the mystical powers of the human coronary heart and the aurora borealis, which matches up in November. After the autumn play, they transfer into their “vacation package deal” — together with student-written, -acted, and -directed SNL-style skits that can run in December, coinciding with auditions for the much-anticipated spring musical.
Her spring musical might be introduced quickly, she stated. In January, although, they’ll do one other student-directed manufacturing of their superior theater showcase.
“My scholar administrators be taught so much within the showcase with regards to placing collectively a manufacturing,” Libera stated. “It’s actually enjoyable to observe.”
Marchese goes extra gothic, with a fall manufacturing of Dracula falling proper round Halloween. They’ll even have a student-directed present within the New 12 months to bridge the 2 seasonal productions.
After Saleh’s fall manufacturing, she’ll have 10 administrators from the group come and recruit a set of scholar actors to work with for six weeks, a program she calls “One-Acts.” She stated the administrators love working with highschool college students, whom they see as springs of limitless potential or unmolded clay. “The scholars are so desperate to be taught and these administrators are so keen to show that it creates a magical mixture.”
Final 12 months, San Marcos started a senior musical manufacturing, which this 12 months might be both Charlie Brown or Firm; they’re nonetheless deciding.
Then, all of them leap into spring musicals, the audition course of for which might be in December to go up in Might. “That’s like the massive bang present of the 12 months for all three excessive faculties,” Saleh stated. “And I don’t need to announce my musical but. So, sorry, you’ll be able to’t have a title.”
On the finish of the 12 months, after all of the chaos of auditions, memorizing monologues, and singing and dancing, they get to rejoice their exhausting work with theater awards and events.
As Libera put it, “We get to chill out for a little bit bit earlier than we do it over again.”
Take a Bow
When requested how she feels about a completely women-led theater program, Superintendent Maldonado stated she’s proud and “excited to help them.” As a 58-year-old lady, she shared that she was introduced with a slender scope of profession choices as a younger lady.
“It’s fascinating as a result of training has traditionally at all times been female-dominated, however the leaders in training haven’t at all times been females,” she stated.
“I feel it’s vital that we present younger girls all the chances on the earth for his or her careers. Once I was graduating from sixth grade, we had been alleged to say our title and what we wished to be once we grew up. I keep in mind my academics and asking, ‘What ought to I say?’ They usually stated, ‘Simply say you’ll be a secretary.’ Not that there’s something incorrect with secretaries, however beneath it felt very slender, very confined to serving to roles moderately than management roles.”
However breaking the theater’s glass ceiling takes help from the group, and the administrators might at all times use one other set of palms to throw stones, so to talk.
