Salina school lost stage venue on show's opening day. Then theater community saved day

Despite tragedy hitting the people of Salina a week ago, the city's theater community took the mantra of the business to heart: "The show must go on."

Events at Kansas Wesleyan University were canceled last weekend after the death on campus of professor Eileen St. John, head of the teacher education department. As a result, the Sacred Heart High School musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," which was scheduled to be performed at the college, was in jeopardy of not happening at all.

Matea Gregg, director of the show and the adviser for the high school's drama club, said she received a call about the situation just after 8 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 8, the day the show was opening, from Annie Boswell, who works in campus ministry at KWU and is the mother of one of the musical's performers.

"(Boswell) said, 'If you need to start telling people that the show is canceled tonight, you should figure out how to start doing that,' " Gregg said.

When she got word from Karen Brassea, professor of theater arts at KWU, that events would be canceled for the entire weekend, Gregg told her they would move the show somewhere else for the weekend.

"I had no idea where we were going to move it to," Gregg said.

Salina's theater community came together so show could go on

With a show currently underway at Theatre Salina, Gregg said the only real options to move the show would be Salina Central and Salina South High Schools.

"I knew South didn't have a musical (this year), and (its theater teacher) Shilind (Wheaton) and I have met, so I gave her a call," Gregg said.

Wheaton immediately said she was on board, Gregg said.

Both Sacred Heart and Salina USD 305 happened to be out of school that day, so theater students from all three high schools came to KWU to grab set pieces, props, costumes and more and take them over to South High.

Others in the community, such as J.R. Lidgett from Theatre Salina, Central High's Barb Hilt, former South High theater teacher Kate Lindsay, parents and siblings of students, KWU students and more also came to help start the process of transferring the musical from one venue to another mere hours before "places!" would be called.

"I told everyone to be at Kansas Wesleyan at noon or to meet us (at South) by 1 o'clock so we could start at 2 p.m. to re-block (all the scenes)," Gregg said.

Gregg said the stage at KWU goes farther back, while the one at South High is much wider, so the team had to adjust movement, choreography and more, with performers working with choreographer Jessica Pozella for almost two hours that afternoon while the technical team worked behind the scenes getting lighting, sound and more ready.

"We had people there (helping) until at least 4 p.m.," Gregg said. "Wyatt Angel, he's a student at Central who's learning how to do lights and is very good at it, he and (Lidgett) ... programmed our lights for us while the (performers) were on stage blocking other stuff."

Gregg said it was truly a collaboration to make the show happen, with one example being Sacred Heart student Emma Roberts, the show's light board operator, explaining in real time while the blocking was happening what the scene would look like at KWU so that Angel and Lidgett could figure out how to make the system at South keep the same feel.

'A string of miracles' kept Sacred Heart's show alive

For the students and staff both on and off stage who participated in the production, it was an experience they won't forget and one they're thankful was still possible.

"That was (all) a string of miracles, I think," said Jordan Compagnone, who played Lucy Van Pelt in the show. "It wasn't easy getting it done, but we got it done."

She said it was a full day of essentially going back to square one when it came to movement and choreography.

"It was just stop and go and stop and go," Compagnone said.

Compagnone, a senior at Sacred Heart who was performing in her last show at the school, said the cast knew that in the grand scheme of last week's events, their production was just a small thing — but the fact that they were still able to have the performance was amazing.

Gregg commended the flexibility of everyone involved with the show.

"I kept telling them how proud I was of them, because I'm sure it was overwhelming," Gregg said of her students. "(But) it's a good lesson for what it's like to be (in professional theater like) Broadway."

Another positive thing that came from the change of venue was the ability for more people to see the show. The original theater at KWU could only seat about 160 people.

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"South seats about 600, so we could sell several hundreds of tickets more," Gregg said.

The show was initially sold out, but this change meant more tickets could be opened up for people who might not have initially gotten the chance to buy them. Considering the last-minute change, she was pleased with how many more people were able to attend.

"We ended up selling close to 200 (total) tickets a (performance)," Gregg said.

Gaining more attention and more eyes on the stage is something Gregg hopes will help keep the theater program alive at Sacred Heart.

"I'm losing four seniors (to graduation this year), and that's really hard," Gregg said. "But I hope (this experience) excited other kids in the school to do it next year."

This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Salina's theater community helps save Sacred Heart stage musical