Theater: ‘something that’s missing’ in Saratoga’s STEM-focused high school

In Silicon Valley, it’s no surprise that students are interested in science, technology, engineering and math, but a group of Saratoga teachers and parents say theater and the arts should get more attention.

Saratoga Theater Arts, a booster club for drama classes and extracurriculars, is working to not only support the existing theater programs and classes but to help grow new ones.

“In a place this STEM heavy, kids who are not in STEM don’t necessarily feel like they’re a part of the school,” said club president Angela Brooks. “They don’t feel there’s a place for them at the school, and drama offers that.”

The booster club helped create a drama club at Redwood Middle School that meets for the first time this Friday, April 28, to get younger students involved in and exposed to theater.

Brooks said students who are interested in playing a musical instrument are able to take a yearlong music class as early as the third grade. The elementary schools stage an annual play after a few weeks of drama lessons, but students don’t get exposed to year-round theater arts until high school, Brooks said.

“We want to be able to provide yearlong access to drama and theater arts, and so we’re starting with the middle school, and we’re hoping in the next few years we’ll be able to open similar clubs at the elementary schools,” Brooks said.

Getting involved earlier means more skill development and preparation for advanced learning in high school as well, said Bridget Warwick, vice president of fundraising for the booster club.

“They are developing as people in the world, starting at an early age. What other subject gives you the opportunity to speak with somebody else’s voice? To stand in somebody else’s shoes and see the world through somebody else’s eyes in the way drama does?” Warwick said.

Ben Brotzman teaches theater classes at Saratoga High School for each class level, as well as after-school playwriting workshops and a theater tech class that teaches students about lighting, sound and production design.

Anywhere from 20 to 40 students act in the fall play or spring musical, with another 10 to 15 helping out backstage.

“Computer science and business and STEM, all of those are obviously quite necessary, but the arts are also necessary for people’s development, and that’s something that’s missing in the area, I think,” Brotzman said.

“Kids come with every kind of interest there is, and it’s our job to make sure our public education system is serving everyone equally, that the same opportunities exist for everybody,” Brooks said.

Brotzman said another challenge has been helping students come out of their shells.

“Building people up to feel comfortable to do that is always a challenge, but even more of a challenge now in these last couple of years,” Brotzman said in reference to the pandemic.

Extracurriculars are funded through the work of the booster club, Warwick said, but the district provides funds for the drama teacher’s salary and a stipend for the major fall and spring productions.

“Drama and theater arts…is not well funded at any school pretty much anywhere, and that’s certainly true for Saratoga,” Warwick said. “The role of Saratoga Theater Arts is, despite that lack of district funding, to make sure that as many students as possible… get access to drama either in class during the school day or in an after-school activity structure like a play or musical.”

The high school is putting the final touches on its spring musical, “Mamma Mia!” The show, based on the music of ABBA, runs April 28-May 6 at the high school’s McAfee Center, 20300 Herriman Ave.

Ticket prices and showtimes are available at https://mcafeecenter.ludus.com/index.php?sections=events.

“We’ve had so much fun,” Brotzman said of the show. “These dance numbers are incredibly fun. The music is much more challenging than you think about when you think about ‘Mamma Mia!’”