Old-fashioned revival

May 6, 2005

CASEY RESSLER/Frontiersman Valley Life Editor

After a two-year hiatus, Wasilla High School is back in the theater game.

Tonight, the curtain goes up at WHS on "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," a musical that has gotten the student body excited about acting once again.

Two years ago, longtime drama department leader Kathy Baker retired from Wasilla High School, and in an era of budget cuts and monetary shortfalls, the drama department just sort of disappeared. This year, longtime Valley Performing Arts veteran Larry Bottjen teamed with some WHS staff members to get theater back in the school.

"It's kind of a glaring gap at Wasilla," Bottjen said. "Other schools have productions, but Wasilla didn't. It's a great school and the administration is supportive, so in November, I talked with Linda Easton and Deb Haynes and we decided to put this sucker up."

"Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" is a heartwarming musical that is well-known. That's one reason why Bottjen decided to perform the play as Wasilla's "return."

"It's not necessarily one of the most popular musicals, but it just screams 'family,'" Bottjen said. "Everyone remembers back to it with a warm and fuzzy feeling, and hopefully, that helps get people to come out."

Once the idea was put into motion, Bottjen and the advisors faced another dilemma - trying to recruit a cast from a student body that essentially had no prior theater experience. The response showed that theater can succeed at the school.

"For three days, I played my guitar in the commons and sang songs about coming out to audition," Bottjen said. "The problem was the kids didn't know how cool theater can be. They needed to see it. Since we didn't have a cadre of kids to pull from, some of them didn't understand the issue of commitment and how much discipline is needed to pull off a large-scale musical. What we ended up with was the cream of the crop. The production looks great."

The cast and crew consists of about 50 students, many of whom had to learn how to act, sing and dance, due to a lack of a formal drama department.

"Our ELP specialist, DeWayne Joehnk, had never really taught drama before, but it fell into his lap," said Carla Williams, a teacher at WHS who is working with the production. "He's done a good job, but he didn't have the experience of directing. There hasn't been a drama and art outlet for creative students until now."

While Bottjen is working with the students to put together a good production, he's also working with Joehnk to give him the experience of directing, so that future productions are a possibility. The response from students and staff has been positive, Bottjen said.

"The chemistry these kids have is just dynamic," Bottjen said. "You'd think the seven students who play the brothers really are brothers."

Bottjen is hoping the production is successful so it gives students the passion to get things changed at their school.

"Let's be honest, the squeaky wheel gets oiled," Bottjen said. "I hope it gets kids thrilled about theater, and that they go the administration and talk about getting the drama department up and active."

The production runs for eight shows, whereas normal high school productions have four- or six-show runs. Show times are at 7 p.m. tonight, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, with the same schedule planned for next weekend.