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  • Beaverton High School

Star power shines light on Beaverton High students’ needs, dreams

Friday, May 3, 2019

Sophomore Margaret Burden (second from left), junior Gennie Brougham, senior Dawson Boyd Fryer and senior Sam Wagner Forster loosen up a bit with their teacher Jonathan Stoner the morning before singing in Shoshana Bean's fundraiser concert. (Photo by Jake Arnold, OSBA)

The halls and classrooms around the Beaverton High School stage were buzzing last week. For the second year in a row, Broadway singer Shoshana Bean was returning to her alma mater to raise money.

Bean, currently starring in the musical “Waitress,” held a concert April 25 to benefit the school’s performing arts department. The event offers more than desperately needed funds. Students not only perform in the show, they also work alongside sound and light professionals, stage managers and assistants.

The spotlight might be on the Broadway singer, but the experience illuminated for students possibilities in themselves.

The opportunity to work behind the scenes with a professional lighting technician excited junior Riley Vinson.

“It shows that there is more to the performing arts, even after high school,” said Vinson. She’s not sure she wants to work in the arts, but the show gave her a chance to test the waters at a career level.

“They are getting an education they can’t get in the classroom,” said music teacher Jonathan Stoner. He said Bean’s production crew sets a good example for the students, showing there is no time to waste when people are being paid to be there.

Drama teacher Shannon Dery said arts classes offer career-applicable hands-on learning, from using power tools to build sets to cooperatively solving problems.

“Most of the kids aren’t going to pursue theater as a career, but they are going to come away with the confidence and competence,” he said. “For a lot of the kids, the theater department, the arts department is a sanctuary, a place for them to be accepted.”

Sophomore Hannah Edwards said music gives her an outlet for her emotions and the arts program was like having a family in school.

“You know you are not alone,” she said.

Edwards was part of the backing choir for Bean, and she said it would help her test whether she wanted a career in music.

Senior Dawson Boyd Fryer knows he wants to pursue a music career. He entered the Instagram contest to perform with Bean. Even though he didn’t get a spot, he credited the experience with pushing him to publish a song he wrote and performed.

“This is a stepping stone,” he said.

Fryer said the fundraiser was valuable for the attention it brings to the arts, showing fellow students and the community the importance of the programs.

Sophomore Margaret Burden also knows she wants a music career, and she called the opportunity to sing before Bean’s performance “mind-blowing.”

Burden took second Saturday in the Mezzo Voice of the OSAA Solo Music Championships. She credits music with drawing her through some tough times and helping her to cope, and she wishes there was more money available for arts programs.

“It makes me really, really sad that we don’t have the funds to be the best we can be,” she said. 

 
Eddie March-Vida, a student from Sunset High, performed with Shoshana Bean on April 25 at Beaverton High School. The concert fundraiser benefited the Beaverton High arts department, but the performance opportunities were open to students around the district. (Photo by Maureen Wheeler, Beaverton School District)
 
The sold-out show raised about $30,000, providing money for student participation fees, arts scholarships and program funding.
 
Beaverton Principal Anne Erwin said that the school deeply appreciates Bean’s generosity but that if not for Bean’s fundraiser, the school would find another way to support the programs. Erwin said the school taps into community support in a variety of ways to pay for programs, facilities and curriculum the budget can’t cover.
 
“The kids who are at my school deserve better funding,” she said. “I can’t tell them to just wait.”
 
Erwin said a group of dedicated community members created the “Success Fund” because the State School Fund wasn’t providing consistent resources. She said the effort had the added advantage of bringing the community into the school and forging stronger connections.
 
The Beaverton School District is facing a $35 million budget deficit for 2019-21, but Erwin said that even during strong funding times, the school needs extra resources to make the program as good as it can be.
 
“The arts bring life to a school,” Erwin said. “We know that if students are connected, they come to school more and they have higher graduation rates.”
 
Bean, who hit it big playing the lead in “Wicked,” credits Beaverton High with creating the foundation for her career.
 
Dery, the drama teacher, said the theater department was much larger when Bean was a student in the early 1990s. The 1990 property tax-limiting Measure 5 began a long slide in Oregon school funding, and arts departments have suffered. Education advocates are trying to change that.
 
The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Student Success saw the value of diverse class offerings during their schools tour last year. The committee’s Student Success Act, which passed the House on
 
Wednesday, includes arts programs among the ways schools can invest new money to lift student achievement.

Dery said Bean, a local kid made good, elevates his classes’ impact.
 
“She’s modeling what they can be,” he said. “We talk about it all the time, but here’s someone who’s actually doing it. …
 
“Their eyes are wide open throughout this whole experience.”
 
- Jake Arnold, OSBA
jarnold@osba.org

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