Postcards from the Rogue Valley

“Envision hundreds of young people going off to their futures full of passion, enthusiasm, poise, and confidence. Can you picture these same students many years later saying that their most significant experience in their life was running their own theater company?” 

— Susan Brashear, Co-Program Director (1996 – 2019), Conservatory Theatre Ensemble, Tamalpais High School, Marin County, CA  

MILL VALLEY, CA — This warm fall night, two dozen students enter the stage at Tamalpais High School’s Daniel Caldwell Theatre and arrange their props on an empty stage. They will spend the next hour and a half acting, singing, and dancing their way through the poignant one-act play, “Alice by Heart.”  

Picture London, 1940. As Nazi bombs rain down, fifteen-year-old Alice Spencer clings to a battered copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland while her dearest friend, Alfred, lies dying of tuberculosis in an underground shelter. Unable to accept his fate, Alice draws him into the enchanted world they have shared since childhood, where time might stand still and love might conquer death.  

When “Alice by Heart” ends, like the rest of the 75-person audience, I jumped to my feet, celebrating the young actors as much as the redemptive power of imagination. 

In an Instagram “reel” advertising the show, the two Alices (there were two troupes performing on alternate nights) bring this World War II story of tumult into today’s world. 

“In the end,” explains Tallula Rice, “Alice is a portrayal of leaving childhood behind and transitioning into adolescence and, eventually, an adult world” — where change and loss are inevitable. 

Built to last 

In 1963, a year after stage director and drama teacher Daniel Caldwell joined the faculty at Marin County’s “Tam High,” there was one drama class with 17 students. When he retired in 1999, there were six classes with 180 students.  

The programmatic bones Caldwell laid 60 years ago remain strong today, beginning with his determination to put students in control. “We must expect more from our students, because we really tend to sell them short,” he said. “It never ceases to amaze me when I see what they are capable of.”  

Today, with 250 students across 7 drama classes, the Tam High’s Conservatory Theatre Ensemble (CTE) is arguably the largest and busiest teen performing arts program in the country. Each season, students bring eight major productions to life over 45 evenings, transforming the stage into a place where creativity and collaboration flourish. 

At CTE, theater is much more than learning lines and stepping into the spotlight. Students explore every facet of production, from acting and directing to set design, technical theater, and production. They also have the chance to see their stories come alive through plays they wrote themselves. 

When Caldwell retired in 1999, Tam High alum and award-winning actor Ben Cleaveland took the helm at CTE. Cleaveland had worked in television and on the stages of London and Broadway. In 2022, he was recognized as Marin County’s “Teacher of the Year.” (Since joining CTE in 1998, he has overseen the production of over 200 plays.)  

As Cleaveland and his colleagues will tell you, CTE thrives on the energy of an ensemble. As a student-run company, it gives young people the chance to take ownership of their productions, working together as actors, directors, designers, playwrights, technicians, and backstage crew. Each role matters, and every performance reflects the collective effort of the team. 

“The thrill for our three drama teachers is not making fabulous theater,” Cleaveland says, “it’s the power of theater as a tool to reach kids and create change. Philosophically, we believe that all students need to make art is the opportunity, the setting, and the training.” 

Other core elements 

There are no auditions at CTE. 

“CTE is a non-audition program,” explains founder Michelle Swanson. “Every student in a drama class is entitled to public performance each semester. Places are chosen or devised based on the number of students in each course.”  

Guest artists bring another dimension to the experience. From building sets and painting scenery to exploring Shakespeare and honing directing skills, these accomplished professionals share their craft and inspire students to stretch their imaginations, discover new talents, and grow both onstage and off. 

​Every spring, Advanced Drama students can take their learning beyond the classroom on CTE’s annual educational trip to London. There, they immerse themselves in the city’s vibrant theater scene, attend multiple performances, participate in acting and design workshops, and discover firsthand how theater connects people and cultures across the globe 
 
Since 2021, the Tam High Foundation has coordinated fundraising efforts on behalf of CTE, paying for guest artists, sets, costumes, theater upgrades, and operating costs.  

When the stage is the classroom

One by one, students take a seat in the Daniel Caldwell Theater at the center of CTE’s 10,171 square-foot home on the Tam High campus. Constructed in 2006, the building includes, in addition to the full theater, a rehearsal studio, full costume and scenic shops, a drama library (gathered over 50 years), a tech ledge, a faculty lounge, and a “design lab” for student board and production meetings, offices, and simple hanging out — the “head and heart” of the program by all accounts. 

The night before, Alice’s efforts to sustain life in a London bomb shelter had gripped the Daniel Caldwell Theatere. This morning, it is once again a classroom, filled with Drama 1 and 2 students. (Full CTE curriculum)

“Please take out your journals,” Ash Baker begins. Baker, a CTE alum, has over fifteen years of experience ensemble-building and storytelling in San Francisco. She returned to CTE last year as a co-director.  

“For those of you who saw last night’s performance of “Alice by Heart,” what surprised you?” she asks. “There was a lot more range than I expected,” offered one student. “The tones changed drastically, from a deeply moving scene to one that made me giggle,” said another. One of the play’s directors said that she usually felt neutral when she watched a play that she had helped direct, paying full attention to the technical elements.  “With Alice, my feelings led the way.”  

“Why does it matter who is telling the story?” Baker wonders.  “It’s a coming-of-age story so it has to be a young Alice,” a student in the back of the theater responds. Baker agrees: “It’s much more powerful if a young person tells it.” 

Baker then opens a discussion about the word authenticity. “What is authenticity?” “When does authentic become melodramatic?” 

She recruits a student to create a scene – with no dialogue – in which he acts out two responses when he receives a letter containing bad news.  

“Which seems more convincing?” Baker asks.  

More solo acting exercises follow, with Honors Theatre Directors (typically older students) joining in. 

After lunch, the two teams of students directing “Alice by Heart” gather for a production meeting in the Design Lab. 

The next morning, a new troupe of Drama 1 and 2 students and Honors Directors take their seats in the Caldwell theater, with CTE co-director Peter Parish leading the hour and forty-minute session. Parish, a long-time teacher in the Tamalpais Union High School District, has been designing sets and lights around the Bay Area since 2000.  

Like Baker, Parish nudges students into a discussion about authenticity. Students think silently, then offer a range of answers. “Not forced, natural.” “Being true to yourself.” “Actively making something your own.” “How you hold yourself.” “The detail within something that gives it a feel of authenticity.” 

He then invites students to form a circle for a round of body warmup exercises. (See video clip.) Later, students divide into small groups to enact pantomimes that revolve around body language. 

The afternoon offers a cornucopia of additional activities. The student teams who will be directing the second one-act play of the semester work through casting requirements.  Three guest artists lead workshops on improvisation, playwriting, monologues, and voice. (Regina Seinsi, the improv artist, encourages students to openly celebrate their mistakes in the clapping exercises she leads them through. “Throw your hands in the air and cheer!” she suggests.) There are small classes on devising, design, and Shakespeare, as well. 

The options also include students in CTE alum Kate Barnett ‘s stagecraft class performing scenes they have created that rely entirely on minimal lighting and props, along with music, to tell a story or convey a theme. (See video clip.)  

The Drama Journal 

Reflection is a serious business at CTE. Every student is required to keep “The Drama Journal” — an ongoing record of their activities, insights, observations, homework, and evaluations of themself and others.  

“It is a powerful tool that will become a permanent record of your experiences in Drama and of this time in your life,” they are told.   

“How are you preparing for in-class assignments? What observations are you making about yourself in this class? How well does your group function as a whole? Are others helping you accomplish your performance goals? Do they listen to each other? Are your leaders modeling the qualities they expect from you?” 

The Journal makes up 30 to 40 percent of a student’s grade. Teachers collect them and respond every several weeks, promising that all writing is confidential (unless the student makes references to harming themselves or someone else). 

Performance rubrics also help students track their growth. Directions for the “Beginning Drama Performance Rubric,” for example, read: “This rubric values presence, connection, curiosity, clarity, creative risk, and contribution to a shared artistic community. A high score does not mean ‘most talented actor’; it reflects the habits and values we are practicing together.” 

Possible scores include “not yet,” “emerging,” “present,” and “alive and generous.” 

Many working as one 

Current students offer their own reviews. “This is a place where you can have an idea in your head, put it down on paper, and then watch it spring to life,” says Louise, a senior with her eyes set on strong undergraduate theater programs. “The variety of experiences, the options, the opportunities for leadership and collaboration are limitless…. About myself, my work, I have never felt so good.”  

Tam High’s Conservatory Theatre Ensemble has spawned its own “Who’s Who”— alumni who have gone on to win national acclaim including  Kathleen Quinlan, Tupac Shakur, Beth Behrs, Bridgit Mendler, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Maz Jobraini.
 
Other alumni have risen high, from faculty in graduate theater arts programs to executives in television production. Some have returned as directors, faculty, or guest artists at CTE. If asked why, they will likely point to the life-changing experience of “many working as one.” 
 
Not surprisingly, CTE has snagged multiple awards in local and national theatre competitions including the American High School Theatre Festival, the nation’s premiere performance event for high school theatre.  

Teya, also a senior — whose acting, singing, and dancing skills are already spectacular — will tell you how important it is that the program is accessible to anyone. She talks about the pride she feels “showing freshmen the ropes.” And she talks about believing in herself. “In creative places it can sometimes be hard to believe in yourself. The respect I feel here is immense.” 

The other day, Ben Cleaveland received an email from a CTE alum who was deeply involved in lighting and scenic construction at CTE in the early 2000s and now works in software tech in Japan.  

I’m at a bar in Tokyo, and it smells like the old theater. I don’t know what it is, something about the paint or the sawdust or something. I’m 39 and transported back to the tech booth in the old theater 21 years ago. 
 
Man, those were the good old days. I know the kids will never know how good they have it, and you’re wise enough to appreciate how magical it is all. But one more reminder anyway: your work is important, broadening the horizons and leaving a lifelong impression on the students you instruct. I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t been there.”   

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