Little Shop of Horrors

Little Shop is my next project that I have been working on for Casa Grande Union High School. A couple of my dance students are in this cast. Although I am the choreographer, there really isn't a ton of choreography in this show. The kids have done an excellent job, and the musical, although humorous on the surface, is quite the commentary on society.

Little Shop will run April 3 and 4 at Casa Grande Union High School's auditorium, at 7 pm, tickets are $10. It will be the last production directed by Manual Leybas, who has been the drama teacher at the high school for 30+ years and has recently been laid off as a result of the budget cuts. This could also very well be the last musical at Casa Grande Union High School.

As for me, I will be assigned to teach dance, and drama at Casa Grande's second high school, Vista Grande next fall, so I too will be leaving CGUHS. We are still trying to decide where that will leave traditional productions such as Nutcracker.

The wrap on Nunsense!

I know that I am way behind on blogging about this show, considering it has already come and gone. But I should mention it just the same. I had the priviledge of being the choreographer for this show at the request of Stacey Seaman, a former colleague of mine who directed the show. I also had the priviledge of working with an amazing cast of five ladies and the extracrdinary crew working backstage. The ironic part was that one of the cast members was a good friend I graduated high school with and hadn't seen since graduation until I found out she was living nearly in my backyard a few months back. I made so many new connections. If you have a chance check out S.T.A.G.E who helped promote this and is working to develop theater in the local area.

Some of the things I love about shows include the connections and new friendships that are built as a group works towards a common goal, being around other creative, passionate people, the rush and stress of show week as everything finally becomes real, the success of a show. This is the world in which I fit and no matter what is happening, somehow always makes sense to me.

In this case Nunsense was on March 5, 6 and 7 at Central Arizona College's Pence Auditorium. The show was seen by 1800+ patrons with a complete sell out for the matinee on the 7th. This was the first musical in several years at CAC and it is hoped that this won't be the last musical.

Here are a few shots as we rehearsed and wrapped up....

What Budget Cuts Mean to Us.

The state of Arizona is facing massive budget cuts, the prevelant are in education. Now that we are now 51st in the nation for spending per capita on students here is what is really happening in our local districts. I say ours because every district in the state is facing the same issues and same cuts and actually this is happening in other states as well. As the economy spirals towards a full blown depression despite tax credits, and stimulus money, none of it is really going toward who really needs the help, the everyday people and education.

The state of Arizona is cutting so much out of education that we are getting to the point we may as well just sentence our children to a life of ignorance. Budget cuts are just counting the superficial expenditures, but the everyday necessities. For example, in my district, huge cuts in supply budgets, the potential loss of benefits for teachers, pay freezes, and the worst part program cuts and layoffs. Lightning has struck on either side of me with the lay off of our drama teacher, who has taught in this district for 33 years, and the choir teacher who has only taught fo three years. The justification, they don't have enough numbers for their classes to make the new requirements of 25 per class. So rather than reducing them to part time, the district is laying them off and bringing in a person who is not qualified. Part of this is due to the failure of our budget override, that we hope to try and pass again in November, along with every other district in the county. If the budget override fails again, it has already been decided that fine arts cannot be sustained and I too will be out of a job. In spite of this, we quietly do our jobs and continue in our cause. Our protests have fallen the in deaf ears of our school board and our legislators. We are treading on thin ice and if continued, will lose our accreditation making the diplomas our students earn worthless. But as our economy further deteriorates, what choices do we have? While sports will also be taking a hit, it isn't the hit that our department has taken. Oh, by the way, have I mentioned that after the override passed, our department came up with $65,000 worth of cuts that come mainly from band and drama that we voluntarily gave up? Today we learned that the vocal music and drama will be reduced to two periods each while the extra stipends for people who assist with band will also be cut, in addition to what we already gave up. What is going to be investigated, does the varsity football team really need 14 coaches when they haven't won a significant game in years and our band is nationally ranked. I don't understand the logic either. Band goes all year long, football among other sports is only a few months and takes time out of the school day for students and staff costing the district double for teacher pay, sub pay and stipend pay. Don't get me wrong, sports are valuable and teach valuable skills. My husband is a basketball coach, but does it all on a volunteer basis. I also put in many hours on a volunteer basis to support my department. My pleas as I stood up and confronted the board on why they have not heard us when we have been at every work session, yet sports have not set foot in the board room. My reccomendation, for every staff member cut from our department, cut a staff from sports to make it equitable. They'll save more money, sports receives more than we do for stipends. Again, the value of we do, is not viewed the same.

They ask for opinions and ideas, yet, this all falls on deaf ears. They claim "the squeaky wheel gets the oil", yet we're not asking for oil, we're just asking for no more parts to be removed. Their claim is "there are no sacred cows" however we're all standing at least knee deep in the bull crap! You tell me folks, I called them on it and for their lack of notifying us about extra duty meetings.

When budget cuts happen, we give up what we can, and still it isn't enough. They have to go further and begin dismantling the department starting with drama, choir and band. The collateral damage is the teachers who lose their jobs and the students who are losing their mentors. The students are and will continue to be the biggest victims.

For the record....let's not foget our superintendent's $600 monthly allowance for a car. I'm not sure where she goes, but if people are losing their jobs, should we really be using crucial funds to pay for a perk.

If you would like to comment please feel free! If you would like to complain to the board, their email addresses are at the Casa Grande Union High School District website, www.cguhsd.org. Otherwise, you can also contact your local representative and let them know your feelings about the budget cuts. These cuts will also cost you not just in loss of programs, but to pay to participate in sports too. Think about it......