Avondale High School students collect more than 145,000 returnables

Rain, sleet, snow, and searing heat haven’t stopped members of the Avondale Theatre Company (ATC) in their fundraising journey that began when the Company was selected to represent the State of Michigan at the International Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland this August. Since last May, the students have organized almost weekly bottle drives and collected 145,785 bottles from family members, friends, neighbors, parents’ workplace colleagues, and anyone else who enjoys drinking from a returnable bottle or can.

“The students have been out many times in the below freezing weather, rainstorms and bright hot summer sun,” said Graham Bush, father of ATC member Chris who is a senior at Avondale High School. “The most notable bottle drive day was November 21st when we had the one-day blizzard with about ten inches of snow,” added Bush, “the kids stuck it out and raised about $1200 that day – that’s 12,000 bottles and cans!”

What would compel a group of high school students to trudge through the weather for almost 150,000 cans and bottles at a dime a piece? “Being selected for the Fringe Festival is not only exciting but a huge honor,” explained Avondale High School Theatre Instructor, Edmond Guay. “This is the largest international arts festival in the world and our students have the opportunity to perform with the best of the best on a global stage. The honor is elevated even more because this is the third time that we’ve been tapped to go to the festival, making us only the third public school in the country to have been selected three times.”

In addition to the bottle drives that raise money to cover the travel expenses for the individual students who have been working the drives, the ATC must raise tens of thousands of dollars to cover the costs of producing their show at the festival. Expenses will include purchasing materials and supplies in Edinburgh to construct anything needed for the performance; renting the tools for the actual construction; and buying or renting costumes and props. To raise funds to cover those non-travel expenses, the group has hosted bowling parties, a scrap-booking fair, a mystery dinner theater and restaurant nights; and held garage sales and sold calendars. In the next few months, the Company will continue fundraising activities with a euchre tournament, another bowling party, a Summer Drama Camp and several other events. “We are also looking for corporate sponsorship,” said Guay. “The students are working hard on the fundraising and they are a formidable and determined group but they are high school students with many demands on their time – it would be nice to get them some help.”

Demands on the students’ time includes commitment to the student-led ATC. As part of the troupe, students take full responsibility for the productions of the company, handling every detail including set design and construction; lighting and sound; designing and sewing costumes; and making or borrowing props. In addition, the troupe has a history of selecting unique and challenging shows that take the group outside the typical high school theater environment. The 2015-16 season began with the production of TARZAN, a musical that involved more than 100 students from elementary to high school age and was staged to include trampolines and flying apes. Following TARZAN, the students began work on the Stephen Sachs play, Sweet Nothing in My Ear, a performance requiring the cast members to learn American Sign Language in order to speak and sign the script. The season wraps up with The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkper Abridged, a lighter offering but challenging in nature because it is audience-interactive and improv-based. The season will culminate with the students’ performance of their Fringe Festival offering, two one-act children’s plays, Wiley and the Hairy Man and the musical, Captain Louie.

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