Publication Date: Friday, May 06, 2005
Wingspread likely saved
Wingspread likely saved
(May 06, 2005) Finance Committee chair says he wants to fund summer program for young actors
by Bill D'Agostino
Vic Ojakian, the chair of the Palo Alto Finance Committee, announced this week he will try to restore the Wingspread theatre program back into the city's budget.
For more than two decades, the beloved program has offered an intense theatrical experience for hundreds of local youth. The Finance Committee will discuss it, along with numerous other proposed budget cuts, on Tuesday night.
Growing up, all four of Ojakian's children participated in the Palo Alto Children's Theatre, which runs Wingspread, the councilman said on Wednesday. "I'm not going to cut their program."
Since the proposal to eliminate the theatre program was made public last week, alumni have showered the City Council with e-mails extolling Wingspread's virtues. The city is facing a projected $5.2 million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year; 18 city-employees are also facing layoffs.
Another targeted program to be discussed Tuesday night is ranger-led activities, like campfire programs, guided nature hikes, and star parties, which entertain and educate 6,000 people annually. They would be cut because the city is proposing laying off a part-time park ranger, saving $40,903.
Wingspread costs the city $43,000 annually, but also raises $14,500 in fees and tickets. The $28,500 to restore the theatre program will likely come from the $250,000 "contingency" fund set side for the City Council to allocate as it wishes.
Every summer since 1983 a tight-knit group of 40 to 50 kids, ages 16 to 24, produce four or five shows through the program. Amy Prosser, 38, was one of its original members. She noted that actors play both leading and supporting roles in the summer shows.
"You learned so much humility and so much teamwork because you were supporting your friends as they played more difficult, challenging roles and they were supporting you," said Prosser, who today teaches theatre at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and runs a Shakespeare program for youth in New York. She is also still a working actress.
"It really was the highlight of my childhood," Prosser said of the Children's Theatre. Nerdy and awkward kids felt loved and accepted there, she added. "It was a place where that stupid popularity stuff melted away."
Brandon Savage, 27, was an actor in the program in the late 1990s. "I hardly remember high school, I don't even remember college that well, but I can remember every hour of Wingspread," he said.
His strongest memory is the 1996 performance of "Crazy for You" that went on despite a blackout that affected much of the West Coast. Originally scheduled for a theatre inside the Lucie Stern Community Center, the show was moved outside. Actors, using makeshift props and standing in front of improvised scenery, expected the performance to end when the sun went down.
"By the time intermission came and went, everyone was loving it," recalled Savage. So the cast and crew handed the audience flashlights to shine on the actors. "That was by far the most unique theatrical experience I've ever had."
Still, after the show was over that night, the cast immediately began rehearsing the next show, "Little Shop of Horrors." There were only seven rehearsals for that musical so none could be skipped.
"Putting a show on in seven days teaches you how to wing it," Savage said.
Like many Children's Theatre performers, Savage is now trying to work professionally in New York. "They all seem to be somewhere involved in theatre, which is pretty exceptional for a business that is so tough," he said.
A fellow Wingspread alumnus who is making a living performing is Assaf Cohen,
who will appear in television's "24" next week. "I don't know if I'd be acting professionally if I wasn't in that program," he said.
Getting accepted into the Wingspread company is what the younger Children's Theatre performers aspire to, Cohen noted. Not having that goal would be "tragic," he said.
"It's like cutting senior year of college."
Staff Writer Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com.
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