ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The West Anchorage High School Theater Program is preparing for a one-night-only performance at the Performing Arts Center in downtown Anchorage Saturday night, following multiple sold-out shows at the West High Auditorium in February.
However, even with the popularity of the show “Hadestown: Teen Edition,” holding strong, the future of the school’s theater department is unknown due to the Anchorage School District’s estimated budget deficit of more than $100 million.
Students are calling Saturday’s show the chance of a lifetime.
“I never thought I would like ever be able to, like, do work at the PAC, because you can get jobs here,” said high school junior Alex Judge. “But I never thought I’d be able to do it within my school.”
Theater teacher Brian Lyke also said that thousands of people are showing up to “see student art.”
“Which just makes my heart really happy,” he said.
Lyke said he is one of the many staff members in the Anchorage School District who are being displaced.
“It almost felt like some sort of a sick joke,” cast member Adella Judge said. “In my opinion, after such a huge record-breaking performance, to just have the rug almost ripped out from under us, just felt unfair.”
Theater students are used to having an audience to have their voices heard, but when it comes to protecting the future of their own programs, some seem to feel as if their cries are being lost in an empty room.
“I know a lot of people that specifically have come to West to specifically do our arts program,” Judge said. “Especially theater, and without that, it would leave a lot of people without an outlet for their creativity.”
House Bill 69, an education bill that could help keep certain public school programs alive, was last slated for consideration by the Senate Finance Committee and is awaiting a hearing.
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