After voters approved Cheney Public Schools' renovation and improvement bond in 2017, music and theater groups at its high school were eagerly anticipating the construction of a high-quality venue for their performances. For years they'd been making do with spaces that fell short of ideal, but now a new 500-seat auditorium was under construction.
Then came the pandemic, and students would again wait — this time to return to the stage and fill those seats.
And the students and teachers did indeed come back. But even with a modern, purpose-built space to call home, the school's drama program still needed some time to stabilize. When an opportunity arose last year to help guide that process, Michael A. Scott, who was assisting with the Cheney High School marching band at the time, put his name forward for the theater director position.
"It took a lot of convincing for me to do drama in high school," Scott recalls, comparing then and now. "My high school English teacher in my freshman year was also the drama director, and he worked on me for my entire freshman year. Finally, at the end of my sophomore year, I got involved in our spring production of Jekyll and Hyde."
That was at Spokane Valley's University High School, where the theater program has traditionally enjoyed a strong reputation. Scott stayed with the program there until he graduated. Later, he got involved with Lake City Playhouse in Coeur d'Alene, where he worked on shows like These Shining Lives.
When Scott planned this year's Cheney High School drama season, his first at the helm, he proposed opening with that very same play. The small-cast historical drama by Melanie Marnich highlights the women who painted luminescent dials on watches during the 1920s and 1930s. Unbeknownst to those workers, the paint contained radium, a radioactive and therefore carcinogenic element.
"As a new director, I had no idea who the interested students were at the time. I was just trying to pick a show that I knew, that I knew audiences liked, and that we could reasonably do as a high-school for our first production," he says.
He tempered his expectations accordingly. But, as it turns out, that wasn't necessary.
"We saw sweeping success. Our students achieved things at an incredibly high level and had an incredible maturity to what they were doing — so much so that our entire science department spent two days taking their classes to watch the show instead of being in class so they could see [its] historical value."
To provide some balance to that serious, reality-based play, Scott opted to follow These Shining Lives with The SpongeBob Musical, which is now preparing to open next week. The students "went nuts" when he first floated the suggestion.
It was an intentionally malleable show, he says, that "has name recognition, and we were hoping that it would spark some interest among the kids that maybe wouldn't give our program a second look if we did one of the more traditional [plays or musicals]."
Harper Sommers, now a Cheney High School senior, already had a soft spot for acting. She'd previously taken part in Academy productions at Spokane Civic Theatre. When she heard that her school's drama program was getting a reboot under a new director, she didn't just audition. She went out and got her driver's license just to be able to get herself to and from the early morning and late evening rehearsals.
Sommers ended up landing the lead role of Catherine Donohue in These Shining Lives and will be returning to the stage as Plankton in The SpongeBob Musical.
"Plankton, for anyone who doesn't know, is the epitome of a cartoonish supervillain, with all the inventions and the evil laughter. He's pompous and pretty cocky. It's really fun," she says. "Being cast in a production at all, it feels good, and then being able to go through it all, finishing the first night, finishing the last night is also very fulfilling — being able to say, 'I did it. I did something cool.'"
As part of his efforts to create a drama program that will offer students like Sommers as much support as possible, Scott is working to foster collaborations with nearby Eastern Washington University.
Sara Goff, director of EWU's theater program, says Scott's outreach was not only welcomed wholeheartedly, but that it comes at a time when community-building and resource-sharing is more important than ever.
"I've been a Cheney resident for many years," Goff says. "But now as a parent, I've become even more invested in my community. And arts education is essential for the wellness of our community and our youth. Coming out of the pandemic, [we're] really disconnected, [there are] really intense emotional needs, mental health challenges and loneliness. There just has to be a space that allows people to express themselves and find a sense of belonging. Period."
For now, EWU is loaning lighting equipment and contributing its own theater students as supplemental cast. In the future, the hope is to have that support take on more robust forms, such as regular actor exchanges and mentorships.
Scott's long-term goal is to put Cheney's drama program on par with his alma mater, University High School, as well as other area schools like Lewis & Clark or Mount Spokane. To that end, he's laying the groundwork for an active parent booster group, a convenient digital ticketing platform and ongoing business sponsorships to cover the high costs of licensing.
"It's a magical place," he says of theater in general. "It's a place where everybody has a role, everybody has a responsibility, and when done well, everybody understands exactly why their part is so vitally important to every show. A lead character has just as much responsibility as the light board operator."♦
The SpongeBob Musical • May 2-11; Thu-Sat at 7 pm, May 11 at 1 pm • $15 • Cheney High School • 460 N. Sixth St. Cheney • chs.cheneysd.org • 509-559-4000
