Sonia Herrera had waited almost forever for this moment, and now that it was here she didn’t know what to say.
At least two or three times during a run of such hot-ticket shows as Phantom of the Opera and Tommy, the council offers free tickets to students from Chicago public high schools. The purpose, theater officials say, is to awaken inner-city kids to the power of the performing arts.
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“Hopefully it causes them to see something they have never seen or felt before and perhaps causes an awakening with them,” says Dulcie Gilmore, the council’s executive director. “Maybe that will lead to some creative impulse that they have, whether it’s singing or dancing or simply a deeper appreciation for the arts–something that perhaps touches the spirit more than one encounters in everyday life.”
Just as disturbing was the resounding yawn of indifference with which the established arts community reacted to pleas for help from drama students at Lane Tech on the city’s north side. Their program, perhaps the public system’s finest, was obliterated this spring when Lane’s principal, without explanation, fired Randall Bates from his position as drama coach. For almost ten years Bates has staged two full-scale student productions a year; now there will be none. One can only imagine the outcry over a similar situation at, say, Lake Forest or New Trier High School.
Other high points of the study guide include a quiz in which students are asked to match the quotation with the person who said it: “Don’t follow leaders and watch the parking meters” (sic); “You’re traveling in another dimension”; “Tune in, turn on, drop out”; “And we’ll have fun, fun, fun”; “The Torch has been passed to a new generation”; “I have a dream.”
By then the auditorium had emptied and the actors, who had changed out of their costumes, were eager to catch a break before the evening’s performance.
One dancer in the chorus, Jennifer Paige Chambers, is only a year older than the students from Kelly. “I auditioned while I was in high school,” Paige said. “I say go for it.”
