A Long History of Great Theatre

 

Firestone High School has long presented some of the finest student productions in Northeast Ohio. Thousands of talented actors and directors have passed through our doors over the years and now many of them have gone on to other very successful professional theatrical careers. Many Firestone grads are working on Broadway, in films, and on television, as well as in other professional venues in cities such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, among many others.

 

Firestone has more recently become the home of the high school component of the district’s nationally recognized Visual and Performing Arts Program. Students from throughout the area make a daily trek to west Akron to take advantage of our outstanding arts curriculum. Students select from five successful programs: choral music, dance, instrumental music, fine art, and theatre. Each program is intensive and designed for the serious student who is intent on pursuing a career in the arts.

 

 

Students Create Theatre at FHS

 

Firestone Theatre is the play production component of this program and features a full season of plays and musicals. We provide students with the opportunity to appear on stage and contribute to the creative process via a backstage or technical role. Firestone students are not just actors but also designers and technicians; our students design sound, lights, scenery, props, and many other aspects of production. Students run the equipment, pull props, play an instrument for the musical pit, focus lights, sell tickets, and record sound effects as well as build, paint, and move scenery. A few especially talented students have earned the privilege of directing a production in the annual festival of one-act plays.

 

 

Guest Artists and Speakers

 

Firestone students have worked with guest artists on the creation of an original dance/play as well as on a wide variety of plays and musicals from a various eras and styles. Positive relationships with area community theatres provide our students the additional opportunity to practice their craft with professional directors and designers. Our students work directly with some of the most talented and exciting theatre artists and teachers in Northeast Ohio.  Our guest artists include theatre professionals who serve as directors, choreographers, scenic designers, lighting designers, and stage managers.

 

Our students have participated in workshops and master classes presented by working professionals such as stage manager Elynmarie Kazle, actor/directors Chris DeCarlo and Evelyn Rudie (of the Santa Monica Playhouse), published playwright Lucy Wang, and fight choreographer John C. Davis, among others.

 

Guest speakers have included Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winner David Auburn as well as Tony Award-winning actor Alan Mandell, Tony-nominated director Marshall Mason, nationally-recognized scenic designer John Ezell, Broadway actress Lisa Howard, Roundabout Theatre Company’s Rachel Ayers, Actor’s Summit co-Artistic Director Neil Thackaberry, Ohio Shakespeare Festival co-Artistic Director Terry Burgler, and nationally-recognized directors such as Steve Rothman and Rick Lombardo, among many others.

 

 

Recognition for Excellence

 

Six Firestone Theatre productions have been selected by the Ohio Educational Theatre Association since 1997 as featured, full-length productions at the State Thespian Conference. Those plays include Macbeth (2008), for colored girls who have considered suicide /  when the rainbow is enuf (2006), The Servant of Two Masters (2004), Dear Gabby: the Confessions of an Over-Achiever (2000), The Seagull (1999), and Much Ado About Nothing (1997).

 

One Firestone Theatre production, The Seagull, was invited as a featured production to the International Thespian Festival in 1999.