The retirement of one of Pali’s theater teachers, Nancy Fracchiolla, and the Palisades fire set the figurative stage for the rebirth of Pali’s theater program. The program lost access to its once-welcoming performance space, Mercer Hall, leaving theater director Cheri Smith, other Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) teachers and Pali students to reconfigure the program.

The displacement of many students in the theater program and the relocation to Pali South after the fires led to complications for the annual spring production, specifically due to a lack of resources.

“Everything [in Mercer Hall] that survived the fires was thrown out,” Smith said. “These lost materials were necessary to meet the needs of both performing and tech students in past performances.”

According to Smith, this “blank slate of the school year will require flexibility and creativity and thinking outside the box.”

Despite the sudden changes presented by the fires, the program managed to put on a production of the musical Legally Blonde at Santa Monica High School last semester.

“It was a miracle to get things put together, and with the parents’ help, the students’ commitment and multiple facilities, we were able to,” Smith said. “We did some rehearsals on Zoom and then we found… a whole list of places [to rehearse].”

With the program’s fall production The Diviners they needed to, again, work hard under pressure even when the conditions acted against them. However, perseverance was not something that they lacked.

“Auditions were unbelievable–over 55 students auditioned,” Smith said. “These students are mindblowing, and they were working on a southern dialect and new characters… every day after school in the basement.” 

Junior actor Madenn Garcia explained how the students in the program continued to prepare for this semester’s play in the same manner as they would have at Pali’s main campus, even though they were in the very limited and un-theaterlike location of the Sears building’s basement.

“We’re expanding on our acting and singing and notating scripts. We’re going to continue these things even in a space like this,” Garcia said.

Along with adjusting to a new space, the fires resulted in the lack of a formal performance stage. Smith worked tirelessly with the students to find a venue to put on the show. 

“I was up [all night] with very little sleep, trying to find a fall venue. I desperately wanted it to look like something the [students] recognized, and I wanted them to have the show of their dreams,” Smith said.

After strenuous searching and paying a hefty fee, Smith eventually acquired Lincoln Middle School’s theater space for their fall production.

She is not alone in her directing and teaching endeavors, though. She explains how through loss, the VAPA teachers have been brought together to help the artists of Pali continue to practice their crafts.

“It takes a village… the frightening part was losing our actual [Pali] village,” Smith said. “But we have the VAPA teachers that are so united, and we look for inspiration in our young talented artists… and that’s what drives us to elevate the level of the work that we do.”

Smith also explained a new type schedule that she has implemented which combines all of the VAPA subjects and has the program’s teachers working together to arrange productions. This includes the dance class under Monique Smith and the choir under Allison Cheng. It was through this unique schedule that the fall production became a reality.

As a key member of the theater program since the ‘90s, originally as a student, Smith has worked with many theater teachers such as Victoria Francis, Monica Iannessa and most recently Fracchiolla. 

“We want to honor all the amazing teachers we’re following in the footsteps of,” Smith said. “We feel that obligation to keep pushing so that the level of theater that’s produced meets the expectations of those who’ve graduated and gone through the program.”

The impact of Fracchiolla is also evident in the students. Garcia said that long time members of the program who were taught by Fracchiolla for years still hope to carry on her lessons and legacy.

“It’s like she’s not fully gone,” Garcia said. “We have her ideals and teaching principles with us. She’s a legend to us.”

With the completion of The Diviners, Pali students praised the show for its successful synergy of all the components that make a theater production truly spectacular.

Junior Elias Gorman, who saw the play at Lincoln Middle School, said that “you could really tell the play was the combined effort of so many people; the actors transformed into southerners, the set designers really made the houses detailed and filled with stuff and the changing of the stage work was really well done.”

Gorman also praised the quality of the play, noting that Pali’s theater program faced challenges while putting on a full-stage production.

“Even though they were limited [in resources] compared to if they had been at the Pali campus, it was still a great play; an outsider would never guess [our] school went through so many harsh changes,” Gorman said.

Smith added: “Whatever I have to do right now, I will captain this ship. I will not give up on these kids.” 

This show must go on.