Steps To The Stage
Steps To The Stage
Building a Student-Led Theatre Program at Ayala Theatre Company
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What happens when a teacher trusts students to create theatrical magic? In this captivating conversation from Ayala High School's drama department, we discover how one unexpected career twist transformed English teacher Madeline Sherritt into a theater director who puts students firmly in the driver's seat.
Technical Director Aiden Kitavis and Assistant Director Karly Welsh share their journeys from theater newcomers to program leaders, revealing how the department's unique approach fosters both artistic growth and personal development. Rather than micromanaging, Ms. Sherritt creates an environment where students design sets, manage tech, direct scenes, and solve problems as they arise—from figuring out how to transform a multipurpose room into a medieval rock concert venue to determining how to spend their limited, self-funded budget.
The conversation centers around their upcoming production of "Six: The Musical," the Broadway hit that reimagines the wives of Henry VIII as a pop group. Securing rights to this coveted show—one of the first high schools to perform it—represents a meaningful milestone for the program. Through candid stories and lighthearted moments (including impromptu appearances by Ms. Sherritt's young children), we see how Ayala's theater program builds not just productions but a genuine community where students become "the calm in the storm" and develop practical skills they'll carry forward.
Whether you're a theater enthusiast, educator, or simply appreciate stories of young people exceeding expectations when given genuine responsibility, this behind-the-scenes look at student-led theater will inspire you to reconsider what's possible when we trust the next generation with creative control. Don't miss Six: The Musical at Ayala High School, running May 15-17!
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Introducing the Theater Team
Speaker 1Welcome to Steps to the Stage Drama Department, a 7th Street Theater podcast featuring local area Inland Empire Schools Drama Department and now your host, Giorgio Haddad.
Speaker 2Welcome to Steps, to the Stage Drama Department. I am your host, giorgio Haddad, and I am here in Ayala High School, and so we're going to start off with the crew here.
Speaker 3Hello, my name is Aiden Kitavis.
Speaker 5Hi I'm Carly Welsh and I'm Madeline Sherritt, also known as Miss S.
Speaker 2Awesome, and welcome to the podcast guys.
Speaker 5Thanks for having us. Thank you.
Speaker 2So let's start with you, aiden. What is your position or your job in the theater department here? Oh, or your job in the theater department here?
Speaker 3Oh, I'm the technical director, so I manage a lot of the crew and the behind the scenes of the show, like the set or like a lot of the tech stuff as well.
Speaker 2Awesome. And what about you, Carly?
Speaker 4So I'm the assistant director or co-assistant director.
Speaker 2Sweet.
Speaker 4And we basically just kind of corral people, tell people when it's time to be quiet, what we're moving on to next, and then in the show we get to kind of lead with the scenes. And that's probably my favorite part is acting.
Speaker 2Awesome and Mrs S.
Speaker 5So I am just overseeing all of it. I got the pleasure of interviewing these two directors, so I get to select the students that are in the production. I oversee the marketing for the show, ticket sales, sound lighting design. I get to work with the cast and the crew.
Student Leadership in Theater
Speaker 5I have learned more about set build than probably any other aspect of tech over the last few years out of forced necessity, not necessarily desire, but my job is basically just to be here to facilitate all the aspects of the show that the kids put together, the students put together, aspects of the show that the kids put together, the students put together. So while I oversee it, I don't actually have a full hand in everything, just a little pinky and then the kids are really responsible for making everything happen that is so cool to hear.
Speaker 2So you would say the students are the ones running the show here and you're just supervising.
Speaker 5Definitely the drivers of the program. I mean there are students that know how to do things that I don't even know how to do so, like our light board and our sound board. The students are so much better trained on those things than I am. My attention gets split between a lot of different things so I have to rely on the kids a lot to be able to make everything happen. You can hear my kids in the background. I mean they're here with us every day from 3.30 to 5. Happen. You can hear my kids in the background. I mean they're here with us every day from 3.30 to 5.30. So my attention's everywhere. So I put a lot of trust in the kids and honestly, they've deserved a lot of the trust. They deserve it all.
Speaker 2Awesome. That is so great that you build so much trust in your students as well as in yourself, and that you learn something from what you just told me. Right now and when did you start deciding to become? You know what? I'm going to become a theater director and I'm going to start getting into all this new you know, stage and performing arts stuff.
Speaker 5I would love to say it was a decision, but it kind of fell into my lap. I interviewed to be an English teacher here on campus and in the middle of my interview they asked me if I had any background or experience in theater or drama. And I was in theater in high school. I did one year of stagecraft where I primarily worked with a light board. But those have come a long way in 10 years, so I don't know how to do anything that I knew how to do in high school other than act. So the directing has come fairly naturally. But even that I'm kind of just making it up as I go. I'm going off of one theater teacher that I had in high school. Sort of I feel like I'm cosplaying as a theater teacher most of the time, but it wasn't really a decision that I made. I'm very lucky that it came to me when it did. I think I've had a lot of growth in theater in the last few years and so I'm still kind of figuring it out. You're still kind of figuring it out.
Speaker 2I mean that is really, really good and I'm assuming you have some more memorable shows and you had a lot of fun memories with all the students you had.
Speaker 5Yeah, yeah, it's been one of those surprises in your career. You know you don't get so many of them where something just falls into your lap and you're not prepared for it, but it prepares you and this has definitely been the case case and all of the difficulty is made a lot easier by the fact that the kids are so great and they are so eager to learn and to contribute and, yeah, that's been an absolute joy for me.
Speaker 2That sounds amazing.
Speaker 1It's like that's your calling that's your destiny.
Speaker 2right there they just said, hey, you got theater experience. You're like, oh, I got a year. And they're like you know what, You're hired.
Speaker 5Yeah, definitely. I don't know if they knew what they were doing. I don't think they knew what they were doing when they hired me, but it's worked out, I think for the most part.
Ms. Sherritt's Theater Journey
Speaker 2Well, you've been doing a great job from what I've heard, and I bet Carly and Aiden are very honored to have you as their teacher.
Speaker 5That's kind to hear, beth. I know they're pressured, they feel pressured to say so, but no, they in particular, these two in particular, are such excellent additions to the program. Carly has like a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the acting side and has become very adept with the technical side as well, and Aidan is brand new to theater. I mean he was in introduction to theater at the beginning of the school year and is now in our upper level performance and production class. He came in like full steam ahead, just like full speed running, so it's been really fun to watch both of them grow in their own individual interests and then to watch them transform into leaders in the program.
Speaker 5Like that's such a joy for me to be able to see them, so I feel very lucky to have them in the program.
Speaker 2That is so sweet and I'm glad that you're enjoying it as you go, and I bet you do miss your students when they do graduate and move on.
Speaker 5Yes, it's hard. It's a hard thing. It's a weird thing too, because every year there's like a batch of students that you adore and then they graduate and then there's a new batch of students and all of them get to watch my kids grow up like cooper's playing with carly right now in the background, like they. They become part of my family.
Speaker 5It's so so it gets bittersweet, yeah, and this is a particularly odd situation for me, because this is the this school year I'm graduating the seniors that came in when I took over the program, so they were freshmen when I got the job and now they are graduating.
Speaker 2Oh my goodness, I mean.
Speaker 5I was pregnant with with Cooper when I took over the newly pregnant with Cooper when I took over the program. So like it's just a weird, I mean I feel like they're they're such a huge part of my kid's life, they're a huge fixture in my, my family's life, like you know, my you know they're here with my kids every day. Like it's. It feels like family and so it's. I'm very I'm going to have a hard time.
Speaker 5I think it's going to be really tough to send this group off, but I'm doing it with full confidence, knowing that they are ready for the world.
Speaker 2I just hope the world's ready for them that is amazing and I bet for your students as well, that is very relieving to hear coming from their teacher as well. Yeah, I appreciate you bringing us all into your story on when you started and how your kids are a part of something so great and so big, as well as you know your theater family. A question for Aiden when you joined, did you know what you were going to do, or were you more of just like I'm going to see how it goes and we're going to see where I land?
Speaker 3It's really funny because I kind of flipped a coin on what I was going to do at the beginning of the year when we were choosing classes and it landed on theater. So I didn't really know what I was getting myself into because I didn't know anybody else in theater. Like, a lot of the people that I met this year are like entirely new to me in my life.
Speaker 2Ah, I see. So how does it feel being, you know, in the technical aspect of this theater program?
Speaker 3It's been an interesting ride. I mean, I started out in theater this year with their fall play and I was literally just a part of crew. But before I even joined crew I was like I feel like I'm going to have a really fun time here. It's a lot of new things for me, especially since theater is so new. Directing people was quite a challenge. But I mean, I mean I'm having fun so far, so I think I I kind of like it.
Speaker 2Awesome. What do you think you have learned from the theater program? What is one thing you're like? You know what? I could definitely implement this thing in my life in the future, after I get out of here.
Speaker 3Oh, I did not know how to use a drill or any construction tools before I got into this program and then I left this program like knowing how to knowing how to use a drill for once, it's a big deal.
Speaker 5Not a lot of people ever learn how to use a drill, so that's huge awesome.
Speaker 2So where are you scared? At first you're like this is awesome, like I like. I like drilling stuff honestly.
Speaker 5Yeah, I had like when we were building the set for the fall play, I was kind of having a lot of fun because especially they just gave me the tools and I was like, okay, sure, I'll do it and I think that was one of the things about Aiden that was so impressive is that a lot of people, when you throw them into a situation where there's this whole new set of skills, they're very hesitant to just jump right in. But Aiden was like sure, let's do it. And not only was he sure let's do it, he was sure let's do it, and let's do this too, and let's do this too, and let's do this too. Like he had all these ideas. So it wasn't just that he was ready and willing, he was like excited about it.
Speaker 5So that's rare. It's that's a hard thing to find among teenagers high school students is the the. Even though I don't know what I'm doing, I'm just going to jump in and I'm going to make the best of it. That's really rare.
Speaker 4The first time I met Aiden, like actually had a conversation with him Well, not a conversation, but I was in the middle of a breakdown. We were in the middle of tech week for the fall play. Someone had put, taped with scotch tape, a bottle cap onto a wine bottle.
Speaker 2Oh, my goodness.
Aiden's Technical Direction Experience
Speaker 4There was liquid inside. Inside it was spilling. I was freaking out. We had like a couple of days till opening, which that's a whole nother story but um, I was freaking out. I went into the wings help somebody, help. Like I don't know what to do and it's like calm down, I got you, don't worry, I'll fix it. Just go back on stage. You're okay, you got it and I was like who is?
Speaker 4this guy, he's so sweet like you calmed me down instantly. From then I was like, okay, okay, we're gonna be okay yeah he's the emotional support around here, so I've heard yeah, he's a.
Speaker 5he's a rock definitely, and so it was very net when he expressed interest in being a director for the show. It was very, it was like a very easy decision and he's new in the program so we kind of need some like every every now and then you get a little stagnant, a little stale yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 5Kind of get set in your ways and everyone kind of falls into very specific roles. So it's always really fun to watch someone new come in and shake things up, and then you watch how different ideas create such like a kind of a beautiful variety.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, sweet, and I'm glad. Congratulations also for being a. You know doing the technical stuff too, because a lot of people you know they don't be like, oh, I'm going to work for it, but it's like he was born into the role of it?
Speaker 5Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2So that's great. And, carly, when did you join? Did you join? When did you join? What year did you join this theater program?
Speaker 4I joined my sophomore year. I've done theater with 7th Street for a while, took a gap during COVID, but when I finally came back to theater my sophomore year I joined intro to theater and went back and did newsies at 7th Street. So like that year, it was just it was fun to be in that class and even though it was like the basics just I don't know, having you as a teacher, like pushing myself even more and then also being noticed in that intro class, it felt like it gave me confidence in myself that I really needed at the time.
Speaker 4Right needed at the time. Right, and though I didn't join the shows at the time, I watched them and I realized, like, how talented these kids are at Ayala Theater and made me really want to get involved.
Speaker 2That's sweet and I guess you know straight up. It just went up from there. Yes, Carly.
Speaker 5I went and saw Carly in Newsies. Oh yes, I remember thinking because she said she felt noticed, which is funny, because I remember thinking when I went and saw Newsies like I should have moved her up to P&P. What was I thinking? Like she is such a good actress and it was so fun to see her in that role. Because you know, it's hard when you're in intro to theater class. You're with a lot of kids there that are taking the class just for the visual performing arts credit. Very much so, and so it was it. Sometimes I feel like you kind of lose some of the better students because they get paired up with students that they don't really want to be there.
Speaker 5I'm sure that happened to everyone, that's ever been an intro yes, but when I saw her in newsies I was like like oh my gosh, and I knew that she was auditioning for PNP and I was like she's like shooing, like so in, and I her her first year in PNP last year it was it was high chaos, because I mean it always is, but she was always like the two things that the. The thing that these two have in common is that they're both calm in the storm. They are just focused on getting things done.
Speaker 5Yeah, my kids are like that they are. They're calm in the storm, they're focused on getting things done.
Speaker 5They're not worried about what's not going well, they're just focused on what they can do to make it go better. And when you're the sole adult in the room, it is so comforting to know that you've got kids that are just squared away. They're just self-sufficient. Yeah, it's a fine line. It's like a razor's edge between I want to give them responsibility and I'm also still the adult in the room, like I don't want them to have to deal with stress that's not meant for them.
Speaker 2Right right.
Speaker 5And we walk that razor's edge Like we really do, like teeter sometimes on. They're very stressed, but these two are always. The other thing that I love about them is they're always so vocal when it's like this is too much, like we've got to pull back a little bit.
Speaker 2They're very honest.
Speaker 5Yeah, and in such a respectful and mature way. It's so professional. The way they communicate like this is what the students need. So I think it's just been such a good. The show has been so good because I have such good leaders in these positions and and the other directors of the show, brookie esparo and vanessa glow and, uh and um, genevieve, I'm worried. I'm gonna say genevieve's last name wrong, but Genevieve Mladenov, I think is how you say it.
Announcing Six: The Musical
Speaker 5I think that's correct Kennedy Towns, like they're all so good at their individual tasks and so and they just they get along, they're nice to the people they work with. That's also hard to find in a student director, you know someone where the power doesn't go to their head Like that's a huge thing. So they've been, really this show has been, so this has just been so excellent working with them. They're so great, they're so much fun.
Speaker 2Right right.
Speaker 5They've got such good ideas.
Speaker 2They're the calm in the storm. Yeah, absolutely Calm in the storm for sure, and speaking of assistant directing Carly, you're assisting directing soon. If you guys would let us in on what show and what's the details.
Speaker 5Yeah, take it away we are doing Sixth of Music.
Speaker 4Whoa, oh, my gosh, who knew yes?
Speaker 5Yes, very excited. Aiden, tell us about the show. Okay, like what the show is. Yeah, tell us what the show's about.
Speaker 3So it's about the six ex-wives of Henry VIII. They've gotten together to form a band and they're going to have a little competition to see who will be the leader of the band.
Speaker 4Yeah, who has the most trauma wins basically.
Speaker 5Yeah, it's a fun show. I think it's one of the coolest musicals out there right now. It's a rock concert and a pop concert and it's also this like really profound glimpse behind the curtain of, you know, these women in history whose identities have really been reduced to who they were married to, and so the story the show is about taking back the narrative being more than who you're in a relationship with, more than the people you're associated with, and establishing your own identity. Yeah, so I don't know. For me, this has been, that's been really fun to put together, a show that is super empowering to female voices and the women, yeah.
Speaker 5The female narrative and to have a cast that's mostly female. While we're doing that, we've got excellent guys in the cast, like so stellar email. While we're doing that, we've got excellent guys in the cast, like so stellar. It is a very special treat for me to be able to work with women, who I think this story is for and a message that I think really resonates with a lot of them.
Speaker 2A hundred percent and I agree. And, if I'm not mistaken, six just got on MTI just to get. Yes.
Speaker 5Concord. We got it on Concord.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 5Theatricals and it was. It's brand new. It's really hard to get, and so we feel very, very fortunate that they licensed the show to us.
Speaker 2Congratulations.
Speaker 5Thank you, it's a huge deal, like we were. We were fingers crossed for this one, like we really, really wanted to do this show. We have the talent for it. We were able to kind of work some fun little surprises into the show. Yeah, yeah, a little. It's obviously because it's the teen version.
Speaker 4It's different from the broad version Right, right, right.
Speaker 5But they've these two in particular. I mean, they've added so many little Easter eggs, little surprises for the audience and the set's amazing. Everything about it is just it's killer. It's coming together so well.
Speaker 2Awesome, and I mean that show. I mean I've heard a lot of buzz circling around the show because right when it got released, a lot of my friends were like, oh my gosh, six just got released. I hope my school does that. And I was like, oh well, you know what it's just released. I highly doubt any school is going to do it. When I found out that you guys were going to do it, I was actually shocked. I was like Ayala's doing six.
Speaker 5Really. We had the same reaction. We're like we're doing six.
Speaker 2Yeah, I bet, that feels so good because they're like what shows are you doing? Oh, we're doing six, the new, one that just got released yeah, it's, it is.
Speaker 5Uh, I think that's also there's a challenge in that in a lot of the other shows that we've done in the past, we've been able to watch other productions of it. You can access other people's interpretations of things like set and light design, but for this one we're kind of in the dark.
Speaker 4Yeah, especially like the teen version. We got to change it up.
Speaker 5Yeah, a lot. There's a lot of different. Yeah, I mean the lyrics. Like there's a lot of themes in the show that are a little more adult, the Broadway versions, the teen version the kids are kind of working with. Like well, how do we translate the? It's funny.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 5Yeah, right, so that's been fun. They've been doing a good job too. This the script. You know the script changes in the teen version, like how do we make this land with an audience the same way that we feel it lands in the Broadway version, and they've done an excellent job with that.
Speaker 2Awesome. And Aiden and Carly, what was your guys' first reaction once he announced that you guys are going to do 16 edition?
Speaker 4I was shocked, I mean, like I didn't believe it, like I think we had guessed, because Miss S was like oh, I'm going to reveal the musical soon. So we were guessing, like you know, like oh sorry, I'm telling my kids, keep going.
Speaker 2They're the special guests on this show as well.
Speaker 4They are the extra special guests. Keep going, just you know, costume closet. Well, it's also our changing room. That kind of gossip, oh, I wonder what it's going to be. We thought like six had been thrown out as maybe a guess, but everyone shut it down Like no, there's no way.
Speaker 1No way we'd do that.
Speaker 4And then when it got announced, we were just like I don't think we had time to process it, like we never got over processing it. It's still insane that we're doing it.
Speaker 2I bet the smile on Mrs S's face was like oh, they're going to love this for sure.
Speaker 5You know, what's funny is I thought I was like, oh, everyone will lose their minds over this, because in my mind I'm thinking you know an ensemble and you know, and everyone else is like there's only six leads in that show. Like, how are we going to put on a show with just six people in it? Like, are we going to triple cast it? Like how are you going to get as many people in as possible? And so sometimes it's really hard to translate the vision that I have for a show to the kids so that they're like this is something for me, and I think when I try to do that on my own, it falls flat.
Speaker 5When I rely on the kids for their input, like how would you do it? Like, what do you need in order to be like enthusiastic about this? They always come up with these really great ideas and a lot of our most fun little Easter eggs came from the kids, like the students' ideas, the brainstormers in this whole project right here, most fun little Easter eggs came from the kids, like the students' ideas.
Speaker 2So the brainstormers in this whole project, right here.
Set Design and Theater Transformation
Speaker 5It's impressive to me because you get in your head that, like I'm the adult in the room. I'm the one that should be making the decisions. And then, when you release the reins a little bit, you're like, oh, nevermind, I don't need to be here, I'm literally just chaperoning their genius in progress. So it's really fun to watch them come up with these ideas and we sit at my desk and we're like, okay, I love that, that's beautiful, that's perfect. It's honestly one of the reasons that AIM got moved up to P&P.
Speaker 5It's because after I announced the musical, he was at my desk every day in intro, like what if we did this? Have this idea. What if we tried this?
Speaker 2You, know the part where it's like this, and every single one I was like oh, oh, exactly what I had.
Speaker 5It's like perfect, excellent. These ideas are so good.
Speaker 2Yeah, I was like it's like you crawled inside of my brain like this is excellent, so so fun, so I have a question that I rarely ask on this show and maybe, if you're allowed to answer it, you can. Can, but other than six, what were the options that you had for the musical?
Speaker 2Ooh, I want to know this yeah so, other than six, what musicals were you like? Well, maybe we should do this one, and I know because most theater teachers are like I don't like revealing this because it might be the afters musical, but let us in on the tea. But let us in on the tea.
Speaker 5Okay. So I actually made the decision to do six Like that was the original idea was when we were casting Mamma Mia. We did Mamma Mia last year, yeah, and I had students audition for Mamma Mia and I was like, oh my gosh, I think I might have enough vocalists next year to do six. So it was very early on in my brain.
Speaker 5I almost didn't even think about any other musicals before that yeah but we, I did, I was like, well, I'll keep it on the back burner, I need to keep my options open, right. So I did consider west side story. But there are some technical challenges with that show, right, and I'm I am very cognizant and conscientious of the fact that if there's a show that's kind of based around subjects like the characters have to fit into certain categories like the racial aspect of it.
Speaker 2Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5I also don't want to create like I think you can go the exact opposite way. I don't want to create like a racial dynamic in the show, so that one kind of quickly went out the door. I love the story, I love the idea, but I just I was like I think that's a tough one for us to put together. I have considered, but it will never happen. I just don't think we'll ever have the wherewithal to put it on.
Speaker 2Remember guys, maybe she maybe throwed you guys off. So, keep that in mind.
Speaker 5Into the Woods was one that I had considered, and I'm sure the kids would lose their minds, but it's such a hard show to do and then the last one that I had thought about, but this was supposed to be our musical. The first year that I taught before we switched it to a spring play was Footloose.
Speaker 2So I had thought about Footloose.
Speaker 5I did Footloose in high school so it's one that I'm familiar with, but I was, like ooh, very pregnant at the time.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 5Didn't think that we were going to. So I was like, oh well, I'll bring back Footloose and it just I don't know, it didn't feel right. I was like Six, always kind of stayed at the forefront.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 5Because I thought the licensing was going'll be able to do it.
Speaker 2So, as future musicals come along, do you think so? You said, footloose will never happen.
Speaker 5I don't think Into the Woods will ever happen. Into the Woods West.
Speaker 2Side Story. But what about Footloose? Would you ever consider, like you know what I'm going to?
Speaker 5definitely it's such a fun show and I think one of the things that I liked about Six that I also like about Footloose is that the music is kind of. My children are just running amok in the background. The music in Footloose is kind of genre bending.
Speaker 2Right right.
Speaker 5It's kind of rock and roll, a little more modern. It's popular. So I like that aspect of it. I like being able to put students in roles that they resonate with, and so I like the high school student cast of that. And then I also really like the message behind Footloose, like that, things aren't always as they appear, yeah, yeah. But even when you're young, you have a voice. You can make a difference, you can make a change, you can get involved in your community and have a positive impact. So I love that. So I'm totally open to doing Footloose.
Speaker 5I have a musical in mind for this upcoming school year.
Speaker 2But it cannot be revealed it has been selected.
Speaker 5Already it has been picked, but the kids can't know about it yet Not even a hint, not even like the worst hint possible.
Speaker 3You should get a little early access, maybe a hint.
Speaker 4Tiny's, tiny's hint. Yes.
Speaker 5If I gave any hint, I think you would know what it is.
Speaker 2Is it really that obvious?
Speaker 5Give a color, let's give a Someone asked me this in PNP today and I came up with a color. Loosely, I mean it's not, it's definitely not One of the main colors.
Speaker 2One of the main colors.
Speaker 5If you don't feel like you want to reveal it, that is totally fine. The color that I thought of when I think of this musical although I don't think it's unique to the musical, it's just a color I think of is red.
Speaker 2I think I know what it is, do you? Is it kind of new?
Speaker 5Would you say it's kind of new? I'm not going to guess it because no, it's not new.
Speaker 2Did it get released any time last year?
Speaker 5No.
Speaker 2Really. So it's pretty old.
Speaker 5Yeah.
Speaker 2Pretty old. Sorry, I thought it was Hadestown for a minute.
Speaker 3Oh my God, I thought it was Hadestown.
Speaker 2That was going to be my next question. I was like would you ever do?
Speaker 5Hadestown here, so I don't know much about Hadestown this was. I was just having this conversation. I know that it is correct me if I'm wrong about Greek myth. Yes, but I don't know. The kids always make fun of me because they always like blast the musical theater songs. I'm more of like a play girl, not a musical theater girl. I'm getting more and more into it Again.
Speaker 3this film so you're familiar with.
Speaker 2Our Town? Yeah, there we go, all right.
Speaker 5Yes. Our Town, we're doing the Crucible it's my favorite. I love the Crucible.
Speaker 4What relationship with the Crucible?
Speaker 5Never break that bond. I love the Crucible. We're doing it in intro right now. Oh, you guys are already starting that. Yes, fabulous, it's so much when people say they don't like the Crucible, I'm like why.
Speaker 5You don't understand the significance, it's just. I love the storytelling of plays, but I'm starting again inching into musical theater. Right, okay, when I was in theater in high school I did one musical. That's it. Because I have no dancing ability and yet I wasn't footloose. It's a wild irony there. But I'm trying to get more into the musicals. I loved Mamma Mia, so fun. I think I'm following a pattern a little bit.
Speaker 2Yeah, you're trying to like gradually go into it. Yeah, the music that I'm familiar with the jukebox musical, you know I love that, and speaking about Six, are the tickets out or are they available to be for?
Speaker 5purchase. They are on sale. Yes, awesome, I think we're adding the QR code to our website as we speak.
Speaker 2Yay, but the flyers are up, so the website you can access it.
Speaker 5Yes.
Speaker 2Can you tell us the URL for the website?
Speaker 5Yes, it's ayalatheaterorg and it's theater spelt the British way, r-e instead of E-R.
Speaker 2Wow, that's a little fancy to it.
Speaker 5Everything else is E-R. It's just the website. We don't want to change the URL, okay.
Speaker 4We don't want to pay to change it. No, just Ayala Theater is high class. Yeah, very, that's what it is Definitely.
Speaker 5We use all the best materials in our build.
Speaker 2The most royal of them all.
Speaker 5We use the newest lights, the newest microphone. We do Everything about. Our program is very posh and very streamlined. Not half of our set is made of cardboard.
Speaker 3That would be a wild.
Speaker 5That would be an insane thing to say that would be crazy to say that half of our set is cardboard and foam.
Speaker 2No, it looks too real, come on, too real.
Speaker 4The bricks look like real bricks because they are.
Speaker 2They are real bricks, so not foam.
Speaker 5We had stone imported from the riverbanks, the Thames, oh yeah.
Speaker 2If you guys are listening. This is another reason why you guys should see Six. Look at that Imported goods.
Speaker 5Yes.
Speaker 2From my understanding. What I heard is that you guys have transformed a whole multipurpose room into what is now the quote unquote theater.
Speaker 5Yes.
Speaker 2And I have seen and it looks absolutely stunning. So give us more like info and intel on the multipurpose room. How did you guys kind of overcome, like kind of like, well, we have to get through this or that, but it's not a theater, but it's a multipurpose?
Speaker 5room. Yeah, you know what's funny when I first walked. So Robert Davis is the choir teacher here on campus and all the kids are walking around outside singing. They're practicing their breath control right outside this room. That's so funny. So when I first walked in, Robert Davis was like showing me everything. And I was like where's the theater? He's like this isn't the theater. I'm like this is an NPR.
Speaker 5He's like no, this is the theater. I was like, oh no, what are we going to? But it actually translates really well because we can transform the space to whatever we want.
Speaker 3So it starts in the lobby. Tell us about our lobby design for the show. Yes, so you just want me to yeah, well, yeah tell me what we're gonna see in the lobby give us a little early sneak peek here there will be like um portraits of everybody in cast and crew, or at least like main ensemble and cast and the directors, um there will be like hey, so it's really funny. I kind of like haven't seen the lobby design in a hot minute, so I kind of forgot what it looks like.
Speaker 5It's going to be like a party rock castle.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, oh okay.
Speaker 5So the show is the design kind of aesthetic that we've gone with.
Speaker 2Oh, he's, oh, oh, oh, you want to say hi.
Speaker 4I'd grab the headphones if I were you. Oh, he's, oh, oh oh. You want to say hi? I'd grab the headphones if I were you. He's kind of a monster. That was Cooper Sherritt, our newest special guest.
Speaker 2All right, he just stole some glasses. Guys, there are a lot of silhouettes and gold-plated designs. Very fancy, like you guys said. Again, very, very fancy it's medieval rock concerts.
Speaker 5So it's neon lights and lots of color, lots of changing, but also it's on a stone background, like a stone backdrop. So, we'll have some portraits that'll kind of feel like a hall of royals in the lobby when you first walk in and then the stage is what would happen if you turned a castle into a rock venue.
Speaker 2Right, that's so cool, super fun. So, other than the stage, what have you guys turned this area into?
Speaker 4We made stairs. Oh yeah, we made stairs for the first time.
Speaker 2Whoa.
Speaker 4Talk about that. Tell us about that, marlee Lane.
Speaker 2Marlee.
Speaker 5Marlee Lane. She's our walk-on coach here. So she is our theater coach here at Ayala Sweet yes.
Speaker 4So for the first time ever, ayala NPR slash theater has stairs in the middle of the stage. They're big, they're painted black, they're sturdy.
Speaker 1I hope.
Speaker 4No, they are. They are. Marley promised me no one would die.
Speaker 5That's all we ask for. That's our bottom line. We just don't want anyone to die. If no one dies at the end of a show, we've done our job.
Speaker 4Yeah, and we've gotten close, but we have never killed anybody in here. Round of applause.
Speaker 2It's the stairs' fault. No one is liable.
Speaker 5Yeah, no one is liable Sweet.
Speaker 5And, oh, we built a set of stairs that go off the front of the stage. But because we're in an NPR, it's such a wide space that when the kids have parts where oh, we're going to spoil over, when the kids have parts where they go into the audience for like, parts of their choreography or parts of the show, they have to run off the side of the stage and then run around to the front of the stage and then run up the middle of the audience and by the time they've done that, they already have to turn around and go back on stage.
Speaker 5So having stairs that take them right down into the audience, right off the front of the stage.
Speaker 2So much more relieving.
Speaker 5Yeah, and they get to spend more time in the audience again trying to bring the concert that's happening on stage into the audience. So it feels like a genuine concert Sweet.
Speaker 2So fun concert sweet, so fun, awesome. And so when you brung up, about how six is normally a six-person cast and there's I have there's males in here. What is the official cast and ensemble? I've heard you guys are doing an ensemble yes give us, give us more, give us more of the juicy stuff we.
Speaker 5So we're supposed to be performing at the rally in May and we were talking about doing a, an ensemble number for the rally, but we were like no, I think we're going to keep it just the six wives. Cause there is a moment in the show. The show goes on with just the six wives for the first couple of numbers and then there's a moment where the curtain opens and then the ensemble is on stage with them and I kind of want the audience to be surprised by that. They're going to know the moment they walk into the lobby and see everyone's headshots that there's an ensemble and they're going to be like how many sixes are these? Six times what? But I think it's going to be really fun. We have a dance ensemble.
Speaker 5So we have a dance troupe that dances alongside the queens.
Speaker 2Anyway, as you were saying, Keep going, go play. No bottle down.
Speaker 4Yes, we have a dance ensemble and we also have a vocal ensemble as well, awesome Dance ensemble accompanies some of the songs not all of them same with vocal ensemble and vocal ensemble is in the back on risers singing and also doing. You know some cute little little dances awesome awesome.
Speaker 2And did you guys get the costumes? Did you guys handmade them? Did you guys?
Speaker 3rent them, we bought them.
Speaker 2We bought these costumes oh, how do they look?
Speaker 3they're actually like, actually really nice. Like we had a, the original show dates got moved so we had like a whole week to ourselves where there was like nobody in the NPR. So that was basically our like mini tech week and we got to run rehearsals with, like the costumes and I was like, wait, these costumes look so good we spent like the most of the whole budget.
Speaker 4We spent the most on just the costumes.
Speaker 2These costumes Really?
Speaker 4They're amazing.
Speaker 2Are you guys going to have a display after the show's over? Be like, look at these costumes.
Speaker 4That's a good idea.
Speaker 5I did consider, because we like to display at the end of every show the poster from the show, the banner from the show. But I thought after this I was like we should really start focusing on costume design more. Oh yeah, because it would be really fun to put mannequins out and do our end of the year showcase and showcase the costumes that we did that's a good idea the props that we used, some of the set flats that we've used. Yeah, oh my God, pause real quick, if we can.
Speaker 3And I think it's really fun because our costumes aren't even like fully, fully done yet they look great even if we haven't even done any muscle alterations.
Speaker 2They're going to look greater from here.
Speaker 3Because we still have a lot of ideas for the costuming, so I feel like they'll look really really good once we get on stage. Awesome. And I do have a question regarding I feel like they'll look really really good once we get on stage.
Speaker 2Awesome, you need to. And I do have a question regarding costumes. Would you guys say that these are the best costumes out of all the musicals? You guys have done. From what. I'm hearing if half the budget is going to the costumes, they better look really good, oh yeah they do and usually I can say, oh well, we kind of just thrifted them.
Speaker 5And most of the shows that we do it's easy to find the costumes for, because it's street wear or it's street wear from. I think the farthest back we've had to go so far is like the 50s, so it's been really easy to do a show, or the 20s, I guess, was the way that goes wrong.
Speaker 4What about Peter Pan?
Speaker 5Well, that's fantastical, it's just like Wendy and the boys, peter Pan was easy to find because it was.
Speaker 4Oh, they're nightgowns, Never mind.
Speaker 5Peter Pan was semi-easy because it was costumes that you could buy at a Halloween store.
Speaker 5But these ones, I mean, they have to look medieval, but also like a pop concert outfit, like what a pop star wears on stage. And so we, yeah, we. We were like, if we're going to spend money on something for the show, since the set is so minimal and we have most of the materials for the set already, let's just go all out on the costumes. Yeah, let's we devote most of our budget to that, which has never been the case in the show. The costumes have always been kind of an afterthought. The set's usually been the most expensive thing that we work on, or the rights for the show are the most expensive thing. So we found a good budget for those.
Speaker 5We spent almost $0 on the set because we just reused material that we had and then we spent a pretty penny on the costumes but, a pretty penny for the ayala theater company is not a pretty penny for most people. Our pretty pennies are are much smaller than other people's pretty pennies, but still, I mean, we're a program that's completely self-funded. So right right. It's, uh, every dollar dollar that I spend or that I pitch to the boosters. I'm very cognizant that we have to recoup that in ticket sales.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 5So we try really hard to appoint money to things that we know will have a good return, and for this show the costumes are the most important return.
Speaker 2And speaking about costumes and budgeting for that, as you were saying, the costume is normally the last thought. Question about the set. So I have never seen the sixth set. You know, I don't know if they have a set or if it's just like a background. If you could give us more? You know details on how the set kind of looks.
Speaker 5You want to talk about Broadway first.
Speaker 4Yeah, I mean, broadway is pretty simple. Yeah, yeah, I mean, broadway is pretty simple.
Speaker 3Yeah, if I'm being honest, when I was like researching because I also designed the set for for our um musical I was like but there's not a lot off to go of because the broadway set is very much just a lot of like risers or it's me, it's moment, oh my gosh, sorry.
Speaker 3It's mostly based off of like the tech and the lighting, yeah, of what the set, that's. What makes the set on broadway is the lighting and how it's designed. But especially since our stage is very minimal and we have to make the best that we can with the set, I think designing it was like really fun.
Speaker 3I might want to talk about what it was yes, absolutely okay so the idea that we were going for was it would be basically like a chapel or a castle that the queens just decided to like throw their concert at, basically, and I think it looks really good because, uh, it's like imagine those medieval um cathedrals in the stained glass, right. So can I talk about the light? Yeah, I just don't want to leak anything. Go Go crazy. Within, like, there's like six windows because there's six of them.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 3They have these lights in them that will change colors according to, like, the songs or the queens that are on stage. There's going to be like this it's going to come to like a point where it's just like the main cathedral part, yeah. So there's a lot of good ideas here and I'm very excited for how the set will turn out Sweet.
Speaker 5I was shushing Josh, by the way, not you. I was going shh, don't give any more away.
Speaker 2But yeah, if you guys listen to this, there's billions of reasons to watch it. There's zero reasons not to go. Come and see 16th edition at Ayala High School. And if you don't mind giving the dates again on when you guys open and when you guys close, yes, it is May 15th, 16th and 17th.
Speaker 5That is a Thursday, a Friday and a Saturday. We have 7 o'clock shows on all of those dates and then a 2 pm matinee on the Saturday show. It's a pretty quick run time. I mean it's less than 75 minutes start to finish. So if you don't have all night I know sometimes we look at musicals like an all-night commitment if you've just got an hour and a half, we would love to have you there. These, they have worked. They have worked so hard. We're probably gonna have to edit this part out he coughed milk on me.
Speaker 4Yeah, it was a sight, he's kind of.
Speaker 5He's kind of a monstrous child, this one. Um, yeah it's, it's been such a um, it's been a labor of love. Like not everything has gone right. Um, aiden mentioned I think it was in that mentioned that our show dates got moved. Like we had originally requested licensing for last week and that got denied. You know, there's always. If I've learned anything in my time as a theater teacher, it's that it's not going to go the way that you plan it to no matter how prepared you are, something is going to go wrong, and so it's.
Show Details and Closing Thoughts
Speaker 5it's been really oddly enough, it's been really fun kind of addressing the challenges, working collaboratively with the students to figure out what works for them and then watching it come together, even when it doesn't go well or when it doesn't go perfect. I feel the most comfortable about the show that I've ever felt. I feel the most comfortable about the show that I've ever felt Like it's we. I feel very prepared. I feel like if someone said today do the musical right now a month before it's we're supposed to put it on.
Speaker 5I'd be like a hundred percent let's do it. So it's, they're killing it. They're doing such a good job. I'm so proud. I fun fact, I wasn't actually supposed to be the theater teacher this year. They were supposed to hire a new theater teacher just because you know. I mean, I've got young kids in the background of the podcast. This is a young woman's game.
Speaker 5I think it's hard balancing everything and being the theater teacher. So when they told me I was going to be the theater teacher, I was like, well, got to go out with a bang, like got to go out with something that's going to be the theater teacher. I was like, well, gotta go out with a bang, like gotta go out with something that's gonna leave a mark. And so to do this for you know, every year now it's going to be potentially my last show.
Speaker 5I'll never know, I'll never know if they're going to hire a new theater teacher until they've hired the person. So yeah if it were this, if this is the last thing I do, like what a, what a splendid way to go out like this, and I think for the seniors that resonates as well, like the seniors that left last year on Mamma Mia like what a great way to go. I think we got to recreate that this year, and it's funny because I feel like I'm starting to get better at doing the musicals than I am the plays.
Speaker 5So I think that might be an indication that the musicals maybe need a more prominent fixture at IA. So I'm being converted, slowly converted from a play girly to a musical girly.
Speaker 2So this year might be your last last year.
Speaker 5You know, but I said it last year and it didn't happen. So, we all say it's my last year, and then we kind of giggle, we're like it's Miss, s's't happen, we'll see how it plays out. We all say it's my last year and then we kind of giggle, we're like it's Ms S's last year. We'll see? Probably not, but we'll see.
Speaker 2Well, that's one way to leave them in the mark, I appreciate you all coming out here and if you guys are listening, don't forget to come see 16 Edition at Ayala High School.
Speaker 1I am your host, georgia Haddad, and you guys are listening to Steps to the Stage Drama Department. Thanks for listening to Steps to the Stage Drama Department, a 7th Street community theatre podcast. Follow us on your favourite podcast platform and leave us a review and a 5-star rating. You can also follow us on Instagram or Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Special thanks to Chino Community Theatre and Chino Community Children's Theatre for their generous support. Steps to the Stage was created by Joey Rice and Kirk Lane. Logo created by Marley Lane. Original music by Joey Rice and Devon. Your host and producer, giorgio Haddad. Engineering producer Joey Rice. Engineering executive producer, kirk Lane.
