Thanks to a new grant from the Lowe’s Heroes program, the outdoor stage at McCallum has gone from being a hopeful goal to a concrete reality.

After the second meeting between the parents working on the outdoor stage initiative, Mac parent Shaneye Ferrell decided to apply for a grant from Lowe’s. 

Ferrell, the mother of junior theater major Grace Hickey, originally reached out to Lowe’s for the partnership and has since built a team of parents dedicated to building a safe venue for kids to practice and perform.

“I did initially reach out to Lowe’s, but it was a group effort,” Ferrell said. “Nicole Wayman, a dance major parent, is another parent who has been leading us and Weston Blaney is a parent of a technical theatre major,  who drew the architectural plans for the stage. The renderings were a huge help in getting everyone behind the project.”

As interim principal Nicole Griffith understands it, the grant covers the costs of the barebones of the stage. 

“The grant will cover most of the costs: things like lighting and other stage acoustics will be later, but the barebones of the stage will be completed,” Griffith said. “Lowe’s is also bringing out a crew to build it. The crew will be out there for two days. It will kind of be like an old-fashioned barn raising where we ask for volunteers to come and just help us build this thing.”

The term barn raising refers to the Amish practice, which dates back to colonial America, when members of a community come together to build a barn while at the same time establishing the principle of mutual aid. The principale for the outdoor stage is the same even what is being built is not a barn. 

With this grant from Lowe’s to McCallum, the outdoor stage has overcome the biggest obstacle in its way: funding. Before securing the partnership with Lowe’s, the creation of the stage was entirely contingent on the success of parent fundraising to buy all the materials needed to produce a large-scale stage.

The grant from Lowe’s has pushed the outdoor stage project from holiday wish list to certain New Year’s resolution.

Ferrell believes that though the road has been paved toward the desired destination, there is still much work to be done, and it’s going to take a group effort.

She invites anyone who would like to help with the construction process, regardless of experience. 

 “We are going to be asking for donations to finish the stage out properly,” Ferrell said. “We also need parent volunteers who have experience with construction to help out with the build.”

The priority for Ferrell, Griffith, and the other parent leaders is safely getting the stage up so that McCallum performers will have an opportunity to resume doing what they love. 

“We are going to have an outdoor stage,” Griffith said. “Originally, the stage was a bit of a pie-in-the-sky sort of idea. I thought it would be really cool to get it done, but I wasn’t sure. Now it feels like ‘this is going to happen.’”

The original idea for an outdoor stage was conceived by a group of McCallum parents at an October meeting hosted by Griffith to discuss outdoor learning initiatives. 

“We had all these folks come to this meeting, and I introduced the idea of ‘why not be creative?’ and ‘let’s take our learning outside at this time for folks who would like too,’” Griffith said. “We then divided into different groups based on where people wanted to put their interests. From there, the group that met for the stage organized themselves and took off.”

One of the first things this group worked on was creating a presentation about the outdoor stage. The presentation, Ferrell said, was instrumental in making the case to Lowe’s for the grant.

Griffith sees the outdoor stage as a way for different fine arts to carry out their final performances, the synthesis of their time, effort and practice. 

“For fine arts, the culminating activity is important,” Griffith said. “Just like in sports, you don’t want to just practice, you want to have the game. With no stage or place to do the thing you want to do, but needs to be done outside, it’s just such a bummer. So this is a way for us to have a space where students can showcase their talents.” 

Griffith isn’t the only person excited for the plethora of opportunities the outdoor stage presents to McCallum’s artists. Senior Addie Seckar-Martinez, a co-captain of the McCallum Blue Brigade, is excited for the chance to have a space where the Brigade’s annual spring show can be carried out.

“I am so excited that we will have a chance to end our year with a spring show,” Seckar-Martinez said. “Obviously a lot of events have been cancelled, but we are all so grateful to be able to dance together, have practices and now be able to have an outdoor spring performance.”

Mathew Vargas, the other Blue Brigade co-captain and a fine arts dance major, shares Seckar-Martinez’s excitement.

“I think having the opportunity to perform one last time will be an amazing way to end our journey at McCallum and on Blue Brigade,” Vargas said. “It will be bittersweet, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.” 

The outdoor stage also opens the door for McCallum Theatre’s spring musical, Urinetown, to have a concrete place to perform.

“The outdoor stage gives me hope for the show,” senior assistant director Amelie Chaouat said. “I just want the best for all the performers since they’re extremely talented. I do miss the energy, and the feeling I get while performing. Being able to be someone else for an hour and a half is so beautiful, and I hope I get to do it again soon.”

Griffith doesn’t see the usage of the outdoor stage ending when COVID does. 

“We can see an end in sight for COVID,” Griffith said, “so now, we’ve been talking more about the sustainability of having an outdoor stage and what we can use it for in more regular times. Maybe Fridays at lunch we will have bands that will set up. We have such a talented student body, so to be able to showcase their work in another setting is just so exciting.”

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