Students in After-School Arts Program Bring Wheeling History to Life
Eric Ayres Students in the Elm Grove and Bethlehem elementary After School Arts Program helped bring historic figures from Wheeling's past back to life Thursday night, thanks in large part to grant funding aimed at helping to enrich the arts in school.
Parents and educators gathered for a special performance at Elm Grove Elementary School on Thursday night of the original play "Spirits of Wheeling - A Spooky Adventure Through Our Past." The presentation not only drew on local history for inspiration, but also delivered a timely theme for the Halloween season.
"In 10 days time, the kids wrote the play," said Ellen Culler, grant designer, art director and art educator at Bethlehem and Elm Grove elementary schools, noting that the students selected the idea from themes that were offered, and then choose from a list of characters to highlight related to the topic of important people from Wheeling's history. "The kids kept the play evolving with ideas as they went along."
Students participating in the performance included an array of costumed actors in the cast, but the production was propelled by equally important behind-the-scenes roles tackled by students who worked as writers, artists, and technical and sound engineers.
"Most of it was geared around teamwork," said the play's director, Tim Thompson of Oglebay Institute, which partnered with the school for the project. "It takes a team to accomplish great things, and theater is a great example of that."
Funds for the program were provided by the West Virginia Department of Arts Culture and History, and the George E. Stifel Foundation, along with matching funds from the Ohio County Schools.
Thompson said the students did a lot of research on the characters, which included Clyde Thomas, Dr. Gail Hamilton Holiday, Texana Jordan, Leon "Chu" Berry, Fritzi Stifel Quarrier, Earl Oglebay and Lydia Boggs Shepherd. All of the figures worked hard and had a lasting impact on the city. The students learned all about them, and during the play, their characters popped up behind their tombstones to tell a little bit about their story.
"The other thing that was learned was that if they work hard, if they're confident and if they keep working hard, they too can make a difference in Wheeling," Thompson said.
Aside from creating the original play, students in the After School Arts Program over the course of three weeks also got to participate in a Zoom session with a representative in the Los Angeles film industry working in post production on editing teams for Netflix. They also created stage sets and props, developed Foley sounds, learned about filming on iPads, created clay masks and developed visual journals to help document the daily process.
"There are so many benefits to a child being exposed to the arts," Culler said. "It was our goal, through this program, to inspire and ignite the creativity that lies within all of your children, perhaps sparking the next Steven Spielberg. Thank you for sharing your children with us."