JULIE (RAINS) KANGAS
MS & US Choral Music Teacher, 1992-2004
My first introduction to CWA was courtesy of Jennifer Laughlin Stewart. Jennifer and I met as sophomores at PLU in French class.  That winter, she invited me to see her father's production of Catch 22.  I had never been to Charles Wright or even University Place, for that matter.  I remember
it being quite dark, walking a very long distance from my car, up stairs, into the building, through this cement room, outside, up another set of stairs and finally into the theater.  If someone had yelled fire, I would have been lost!  On entering the theater, the thing that struck me most was the set, which was amazing.  Simple and yet it contained such intricate details, from the period cot to the camouflage netting hanging on the wall.  The next year I saw Deathtrap and as a senior, I saw Les Miserables. On that occasion, a group of theater-goers from Steilacoom met first at E. R. Rogers for dinner before the performance — quite a lovely event and what a performance that was, from the engineering of the battle scene to young Scott (?)Williams singing "God on High" — lovely.

Until I came as Donn's vocal coach on West Side Story, I had no idea what kind of space the "theater" actually was.  After I was hired the following fall, I became intimately acquainted with that space and others around campus.  I taught French in the MS portables and choir in the chapel.  The costume and set shops were trailers parked just above the tennis courts. After a couple of years, the US choir classes were moved to the study hall.  Although the chapel acoustic is beautiful, it was nice for the US to be under the same roof. When the Middle School was built and the language classes were moved to those great rooms with kitchens and bathrooms nearby and offices next door, if was wonderful. However, I didn't teach French then, but all music in the Middle School.  Great space, fantastic piano.  I do remember making numerous trips up and down all those stairs moving into the study hall for MS Musical tech week. That's when I was really thankful for 30 or more students in the MS class. Little loads and lots of them!  One of my other favorite memories was running sectionals in Small Vocal.  I would put a group in the office, a group in the room, a group (small, please) in the piano room up stairs and a group in the storage closet — we'd draw straws for who got stuck in the closet. 

And yet the students thrived.  I carry such wonderful memories of student performances;  of Beth Olson as "Mama" in Fiddler,  of Nikki Pryzanski playing a medium.  Of Caitlyn McLaughlin as "Dorothy"  and then as "Little Red Riding Hood" and then on the cover of the State Solo and Ensemble program.  Of the first time the Small Vocal women's ensemble took first at contest, and then the next time, and then we couldn't sing because Brittany Haroldson got the chicken pox and then Becca and Jenny George taking first the next year. Of Drew Weyerhauser and Laird Bennion as
"Princes," which they are.  Of Ben Weyerhaueser singing "Walls of Zion" and then those four boys, Jake Wham and Alex Henry and Ben and George Costakis in their tuxes at the Lakewood McDonald's before singing at a board retreat.  Of Alex singing like a girl in that silly, fun-loving quartet that brought the house down,  of them singing "Goodnight, My Angel" as a surprise to me and then unborn Ella at our last concert before I took maternity leave.  I remember talking to Sam and Nathalie Brown at our last First Nighters Supper before High Spirits.  I made a less than complimentary comment about the "theater."  Nathalie remarked that perhaps it was the adversity that gave rise to such stellar performances. The adults and student alike have done amazing things in amazing places, and I'm glad to see that the Performing and Language Arts have survived the adversity and can't wait to see what is possible with what is to come.