James Bowie High School
the
Lone Star Dispatch Vol. 31
Issue 6
4103 W. Slaughter Lane Austin TX 78749
Monday, May 16, 2016
www.thelonestaronline.com
An aroma of mold fills theatre
Heavy rain left theatre damaged and unhealthy for student and public use Victoria Newell Entertainment Editor On Monday April 16 to Friday April 20, Austin Texas saw heavy rains and monstrous storms, and one unlucky soul stepped into Bowie’s theater, bombarded with disgusting smells and a slushy carpet, it didn’t take too long to realize that the theater had flooded. “During the musical Tarzan, the pipes were breaking, the theater was flooding, the outlets- flaccid and useless, and that’s when I heard about the flooding; quite the recuss,” senior theater student Nick Genin said. The theater’s wet status was officially announced on April 20, when Silver Star director Courtney Allison had to break the news to her team that the theater was no longer safe to perform in because of possible mold spores made evident by the stench and the mold that had already creeped onto the UIL sets. The district quickly got to work in fixing the theater. “I was actually in the theater, working with one of the middle schools that performed in spring show, and I was stepping in soggy carpet, and it wasn’t just the smell; I was just like, ‘this isn’t safe, It isn’t safe
for kids to be rehearsing in’, especially if there gonna be breathing heavy and really having to take deep breaths,” Allison said. The Silver Stars still had the issue of putting their show up in a different venue. They eventually decided to perform in the gym, and with help from RealLife Church, AISD Fine Arts Director Greg Goodman, The Silver Star parents, Principal Stephen Kane, and the athletics department, put on the show. “It was so incredibly refreshing to see everybody say ‘okay, let’s build a stage,’ everybody has really come to together, and it has been the biggest blessing to be a part of that. The show did go one, and it was a really spectacular show,” Allison said. With the Silver Star’s show done, the theater’s flooding issue needs to be addressed. The problems have been identified and the Construction Department at AISD is aware and is putting together a project in early June to fix some outdated infrastructure in the theater. “The district has been working on where we get the problems and I think we’ve narrowed it down to several different problems,” Kane said. “One of them is the back door, and we think, but we
won’t know until we tear the wall up; but the drain pipes are in the wall and we think that the pipes are rotted out now and old and when there’s so much water it can’t take it out fast enough.” Bowie has a very unique system of drainage, instead of drain pipes being outside the building, like on most houses, the drain pipes are in the wall. The drain pipes are rotted and outdated, and water is leaking through the walls. “I feel like it should be rebuilt because we don’t have enought space backstage and we don’t have enough space for storage but I think that’s highly unlikely,” senior Andy Moe said. One of the places where it’s the worst, is in the theater. The other problem is the back garage door that can be seen from the front parking lot, the seal no longer keeps water out. “It’s been an ongoing problem for quite a while now, I’ve been here for almost four years and this year has definitely been the worst when it comes to flooding, mold, and animals and creatures that have been in there,” senior technical theater President Kamryn Bryce said. Despite the numerous work orders put in by the theater department, many
involving things such as a large centipede and two cases of bats in the theater, it wasn’t until more than one department began addressing the issue of the falling-apart-theater when real evidence of repair began. “There are a lot of times where I’ll run through the theater trying to get something and trying not to gag because smells so bad, but I feel like it’s just something that we’ve been fixing, we’ve been dealing with it,” Bryce said. “So now that Silver Stars have come in and deemed it unacceptable, something is happening. But we have gone in and put in countless work orders, so it’s just interesting now that something is happening now. I think that the right people talked at the right time.” This issue has caused a lot of raised eyebrows; with a theater this outdated that can no longer house even one-fourth of the school, should the theater be renovated or rebuilt? “I think it would be awesome for the theater to be rebuilt, my concern would be that it would take a really long time and that we wouldn’t get to perform in the theater for over a year,” senior theater officer Paige Bradbury said. “I think that maybe it should just have extensive
Suit up: Sophomore Tanner Howell and Luke Fisher help move a moldy set piece out of the theatre. Due to heavy rainfall and flooding the theatre started to grow mold in certain areas. Photo by Kamryn Bryce
remodeling but there’s so many problems that it just might as well be rebuilt. I do think that we definitely don’t have enough but what we do with what we have is just a testament to how good we are.” Compared to some of the newer schools in the district, the theater is in poor state. The front curtains are not even opened and closed for fear of them falling, storage problems are prominent- as costume and prop closets are
bursting at the seams, and backstage space is limited. Even the light board still uses floppy disks. “Every year since as long as I can remember, when we have a problem, we fix it, we put some duct tape on it, we clean it, we reorganize, we do everything we can to fix the problem as best we can,” Bryce said. Read more: “Flood water causes moldy chaos for theatre department” on Page 2
Finals week changes up the usual schedule Day 1:
Day 2:
-Thursday, May 26
-Tuesday, May 31
5th & 6th period
3rd & 4th period
Day 4:
Day 3:
-Thursday, June 2
-Wednesday, June 1
Photo Essay
The PALS help raise awareness with the color blue Blue out Bowie helped raise awareness and collected donations for children and teens from abusive homes and situations.
See page 8 for more details
INSIDE
Entertainment 2 News 3
Student Life 4-5
art by Fuaad Ajaz
1st & 2nd period
7th & 8th period
Entertainment
Silver Stars performed a show about communication Mold in the theatre caused the Silver Stars to move their performance to the gymnasium where they had to build a stage and continue their dance routine. See page 3 for more details
Athletics
Tennis players raise their endurance by competing Junior Jolie Francis and senior Mariya Shkolnayaco travel to Waco for regionals and College Station to compete in the state tournament See page 6 for more details
Commentary 6
Athletics 7
Photo Essay 8