High schools join dramatic forces

In what is being publicized as a "historic event," the fourth production of the John Waldron Arts Center Theater Series 2000-2001 will be a joint effort by the drama departments of Bloomington High Schools North and South. It is the first time students of both schools will perform together on the same stage.\nTwo Depression-era plays by American playwright Clifford Odets will be presented, "Waiting For Lefty" and "Awake and Sing." The performances will run 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16, 17, 23 and 24; and 2 p.m. Feb. 25.\nFrancesca Sobrer, theater director at Bloomington High School North, is producing "Waiting For Lefty" and said she is enthusiastic about the show's power to communicate to a diverse audience.\n"'Lefty' deals with the terrible conditions of labor in America before the union movement took hold," she said. "I studied the group theater movement in college, of which this is a great example, and I became fascinated by it. I loved the idea that theater can act as a social, political and humanitarian voice."\nShe said the multi-dimensional play was first performed at union halls on weekends.\n"The play met with huge success at the time it first came out because it was so immediate and relevant to what was going on during that period," she said. "People were very moved by it."\nBloomington High School South theater director Catherine Rademacher will produce "Awake and Sing." It is a family drama depicting the struggles of everyday life amid petty conditions.\n"The tone of 'Waiting For Lefty' is very different from that of 'Awake.' It speaks with a pretty forceful voice, and in fact ends with a call for action, whereas 'Awake' is much more subtle and intimate," Rademacher said. "You almost feel as if you're in the house with this family, watching their story unfold."\nThe two directors said they are not concerned that the themes of the plays, both written in 1935, might hold little relevance for today's audiences.\n"Much of the audience and, of course, the students, can't relate directly to the period these plays came out of, which is the Depression, but everyone can understand the underlying themes -- loss, human relationships," Rademacher said. "We all struggle, we all feel fear, we all know what it's like at some point to not know where the next paycheck is coming from. This is our human condition. The ideas are timeless."\n"Awake and Sing" was not the original choice as a companion piece to "Waiting For Lefty." The directors initially discussed producing "'Til the Day I Die," written by Odets at about the same time as the others, but eventually dropped it.\n"That play was very much a period piece in that it's anti-German and anti-propaganda," Sobrer said. "It contains some violence and also some racial and gay issues that would have been both backward-looking to today's culture and problematic for a school production. So we chose 'Awake' instead, which I think is a better play anyway."\nRademacher said she shares Sobrer's opinion.\n"I'm glad we stumbled upon it," she said. "It's a wonderful play, with so many layers and so much meaning to draw from it. Actually, for me this is a revisitation, since I had first seen it years ago and was really struck by it."\nThe Bloomington Area Arts Council generated the idea of a collaboration between the schools as something that might be valuable to the community. Development and Marketing Director Janice Skinner said she felt Sobrer, who had produced plays at Bloomington High School South prior to her current position, would be ideal for the project.\n"Having worked with the drama departments at both schools, Francesca can appreciate the amount of talent to be found in both groups of students," Skinner said. "This won't be just back-to-back shows by two separate schools, but a compilation of actors from both schools in both plays. It's a truly cooperative effort."\nSobrer said she has enjoyed the experience.\n"There's about an equal number of students from North and South in this production, so the teamwork aspect has been great," she said. "The students have made a lot of new friends, and it's been a much greater success than we could've anticipated"