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BIRMINGHAM — The Wylie E. Groves High School Advanced Theater class won the state championship for its studio production of “Orphan Trains” at the Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association One Act State Theatre Festival at St. Johns High School Feb. 13-14.
“My approach to theater is it’s theater with and for and by students, so they are instrumental in the theater creation process and they got called out for their contributions,” John W. Rutherford, the director and advanced theater teacher, said.
“Orphan Trains,” by Deborah Craig, is based on the Orphan Train Movement that, between 1854 and 1929, relocated children who were orphaned or abandoned from cities in the eastern United States to the Midwest.
Students researched the time period to prepare for the production.
“I’m very grateful we got the opportunity to tell this story, because I think especially in this political climate, a story about immigrants and abandoned children and things like that are just so prevalent in our society, and they need to be spoken about more,” Maddie Zdrojewski, one of two student-directors of “Orphan Trains,” said.
They also visited the Huckleberry Railroad and rode on a historic-style train.
“Actually sitting on the train and kind of understanding how scary and daunting that would be for these kids put on these trains, I think, helped all of us in the show really connect to the material more and be able to physicalize it in a way that we wouldn’t have unless we had actually gone and rode the train,” Zdrojewski said.
Zdrojewski emphasized how collaborative the entire process of this show was. Though every student had a role and worked on certain tech and set elements, she said collaboration was always at the forefront.
“I’ve never been in a show that was so group-centered, rather than just around one director’s vision. And I was really grateful for that aspect of it,” Zdrojewski said.
Studio productions at MIFA
In explaining studio productions at MIFA, John W. Rutherford, director and teacher, said, “it’s meant to have a more minimalistic approach to theater.”
Productions take place in a 25-by-20-foot rectangle, and the audience sits on three sides.
Studio productions are limited to using six acting cubes, a table and chairs. Shows must have a total maximum running time of 45 minutes. Costumes and props are allowed, but not special lighting, and classes must provide their own sound.
“For our production, we decided to do no artificial sound, so all sounds were created by human voice,” Rutherford said.
Grove’s advanced theater class usually goes to MIFA every year, and last time they also were state champions. Last year was a group full of seniors, so this year’s class was a completely new group of students — seniors, juniors and sophomores.
“It felt (this year’s production) very different from what we had done the year before. So the fact that we won was exciting,” Rutherford said.
Before advancing to the MIFA State Theatre Festival, they performed and competed at the district and regional level. They finished in first-place at the regional competition at Henry Ford II High School.
“It’s the constant state of improvement, which is what makes me want to do it year after year,” Rutherford said. He explained that their score improved after each time it was performed in front of judges at competitions.
Zdrojewski said that after their performances at MIFA, “everybody was confident that we had set out what we came to do, and it was our best performance that we had.”
Rutherford said that “it’s nice when students who do the work get acknowledged for doing the work, and the work is actually done by the students.”
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