Restore The Rec

Dear Players,

Have you heard the news? Our beloved old barn is being restored! And what a restoration it shall be, both internally and externally. First, there will be a glass lobby wrapping around the front of our igloo, allowing the Rec to sparkle brilliantly on many an opening night. There’s also a new sound and lighting booth to help the incredible tech crew ensure that the fabulous actors upon the stage shine brightly. The proposed plans also include new dressing rooms and devoted space for building scenery. Imagine devoted dressing rooms?

The memories that I have of “the Rec,” both as a student and a director, are too many to list in this letter, but rest assured they are plentiful, filled with laughter, tears, and an overwhelming sense of camaraderie. Having spent my entire childhood and most of my adulthood in the SCH community, I can honestly say that this new phase is genuinely thrilling.

I do not doubt that the memories you have are plentiful as well, and in your reminiscing, won’t you take a moment to consider making a contribution to the Restore the Rec Campaign, thereby assuring that future Players will be able to continue creating magical memories in a place so beloved by many.

Wishing you all the best,
Debra Gress Jansen ’87 H’16

Dear Players Alumni,
 
I am writing to you today to share updates and important news about our Restore the Rec Campaign!
 
As you know, I am a Springside Alum ‘03 and was a member of Players all four years of high school. My experience in Players and at The Rec fundamentally shaped me as a young person who loved the performing arts and who was working to define and explore who I was as a performer and a person. 
 
I learned about my value in a larger, collective group of students, learned the importance of a rigorous work ethic, and learned about the power and transformational opportunities that one can discover through performance. I left as a student willing to take artistic risks, ready to be humbled by the impact of live theater, and recognizing the magic we created through our productions.
 
Now—twenty years later—the opportunity to be the Director of the Players program has been one of the greatest gifts of my life, allowing me to delve into the creative process on the other end of the table.
 
Almost anyone who passes through the Players program and works either onstage or offstage will reference and talk about “the magic” that is created in The Rec. That magic, and the part it played in my own development, is alive for me as I hope it is for you. As Players, your dedication, hard work, and willingness to explore theater against all odds—a leaky building, resources that needed updating, (and, most recently, a global pandemic)—is truly inspirational and has shaped our Players program in every way. Together, we created a tradition of excellence and grew in ways that you should be incredibly proud of. You rose to the challenge and every expectation set for you, and you not only succeeded, you sparkled and you shined!
 
I hope you also know that the Players program and its reputation has grown in the past few years. Our students have been nominated, awarded and recognized in the greater Philadelphia theatre region for their work as performers onstage for both our musical productions and straight plays, and in our work with publicity, costume and makeup design. As an award winning high school theater program, we are proud of our work and our impact on the greater community inside and outside the walls of SCH. However, our treasured Rec home has not progressed!   
 
The Rec—although a crumbling shell of its original self—still serves as a welcoming and inclusive community gathering space: a “home”, an “igloo” where students from all grades, backgrounds, experience levels and areas of interest can come together to form friendships, and work towards a collective goal that pushes, changes and challenges them. It is a space that is steeped in strong history, and its walls carry the names of the many alumni who have passed through our program and left their mark in Players history and on the Players family.
 
Today, we are working to raise the funds to continue to renovate, reconstruct and reinvigorate The Rec so that Players and student body alike can utilize it as a multi-use, multi-functional, safe and properly-equipped creative space. Our Restore The Rec Campaign is in full swing, and Phase I of the renovation is nearing completion! If you are in the area, I encourage you to drive by and take a look at the changes.
 
The building is now weather-tight with a brand new mansard roof, and new windows have been added with blackout features for performances. Further plans in Phase 2 and 3 include an impressive new glass lobby to wrap around the building, new restrooms for patrons, a kitchen area, set construction area, new dressing room space, new seating, new stage, and all-new lighting and sound equipment. Most importantly, our green room walls—adorned with generations of Players’ names—are being preserved digitally and will be re-created in our new lobby to inspire future generations of Players.
 
Finally, I am thrilled to share that we have an extremely invested and generous donor who has agreed to match any gift that is contributed to the campaign, up to $25,000! You will be hearing even more about the project in the coming months, and I hope that you are able to give generously to the effort, as you gave your time, talent and passion to our program and this special space we call a “home” (no gift is too small)!
 
If you are able to contribute, please click the "Support the Rec" button on this page!
 
Missing all of you, and wishing you good health and happy new year.            

MIS MIS GEH,
Meghan Rogers
 

Dear Players,

The Players have been and still are one of our school’s premier organizations. 

You are one of more than 2,000 Chestnut Hill Academy, Springside, and SCH alumni who have been part of a program that is known not only for its continuity but also for the quality of the work that has appeared on several different stages at the school.

First it was in the space that is now the Harris Commons. Then shows were produced in the Woodward or Kingsley gyms. As both the athletic and drama programs grew in the 1960s and early 1970s it was clear that the Players needed their own home.

Thus, in 1973, the school reclaimed the Rec from the Wissahickon Badminton Club and turned it into what was then a state-of-the-art performing arts center.

Over the years the Players have been led by many CHA, Springside, and SCH faculty members. In the early days Hank Putsch, Tobey Sindt, Peter Herzberg, Ralph Flood, and Lee Smith, among many, held the artistic reins.  

While their leadership and artistic talent were a large part of the Players’ success, it was, from the time he arrived at CHA in 1962 until his departure 30 years later, Owen Boyer who was the Players’ heart.

It was Mr. Boyer, OAB, or Owen who worked with the architects and the fundraisers to assure that the Rec’s renovations were successful. They were. 

Owen oversaw the technical aspects of every show the Players produced. In the 1989 program for the troupe’s third production of The Fantasticks (the other two were in 1968 and 1974 – the first production in the Rec) he led the list of the number of shows involving Players directors, production directors, and music directors. Owen was part of 34 productions, more than twice as many as anyone else.

Now, almost 50 years after it opened, the Rec is in need of major physical and technical renovations. The Restore the Rec Campaign is well underway. We hope that everyone involved onstage and off during Owen’s time will seriously consider making a pledge to help the school raise the remaining two-thirds of the $6.6 million costs of the renovations.

We’re sure that your memories of Owen’s influence, both in the Rec and elsewhere, will be an incentive for you to make a generous gift to the campaign. Another incentive is 1960 Players president Bruce Whelihan ‘60’s pledge to match every gift up to $25,000 each.

Join us in supporting this project. We have already received one gift in Owen’s memory. He deserves the honors, as do the Players.

Break a leg.

Charles T. Lee III ‘74                     Charles H. Hutchinson ‘84
1974 Players President                    1984 Players President

Dear Players,

Some of my fondest memories are the days I spent in that magical place called “The Rec” with all of you. Countless hours of rehearsals, chasing you out of the loft, the camaraderie in the green room, long nights during tech week….I wouldn’t trade a minute of those times.

The Rec has always been a happy and safe place to be in. The traditions live on, but the Rec is old, and it’s time to renovate “the igloo.”
There have been many renovations on the campuses and the school has never looked better. Now it’s the Rec’s turn!

If you loved your experience in the Rec then please consider donating to the Restore The Rec campaign. The renovations will transform that magical building into a state of the art performance venue for all productions and community events. The Players program is better than ever and this renovation will only enhance the future performances to come. The estimated cost  to move forward on this is $6.6 million.

Please join me in supporting the campaign to Restore the Rec!

I hope you are all well…
Mrs. Garrett
 

Dear Players,

I hope you and your families are all well and are staying safe. How poignant those often casually spoken words are at this time, and how we hope the answer is one that we want to hear. I hasten to assure you that I am well, and keeping very busy with online teaching. I have three classes this year at Friends’ Central, two third-year regular Spanish and a second-year advanced French. It has been challenging and rewarding. I have had to rethink, retheory, reimagine and reinvent what I have been doing for almost 40 years, and find new ways to engage students and advance curriculum, all the while finding time to interact with them on a personal level to find out how they are doing as they make their way through this very different time — and I share with them how I am doing. Age (I am nearly 77… old!) and experience has made it easier for me in some ways, but for them it is very new and daunting. I took a walk the other evening. It had rained most of the day, and late in the day the sun came out and it warmed up significantly. I live now in what some of you will remember as the Beatty house and others the Jones’; it is the big brick pile with pillars just across from the Springfield Avenue entrance to CHA. I have the servants’ quarters on the second floor. My walk took me down Moreland to Cherokee so I could look over the bridge at the Rec (too quiet), and I took a little detour into what is now the SCH Lower School building behind Springside. This is the first time I have seen it and, Wow! Amazing! I can’t wait to get inside and explore. I am told it is a truly remarkably done space. With the Rec and the McCausland complex in mind, I continued my walk, thinking about a recent meeting I had with Jenny McHugh and Ellen Fishman, concerning the new and wonderfully ambitious plans for the renovation of and, in ways, the remaking of the Rec. Yes, after all these years of talk it is finally, it seems, going to happen. The plans include a wrap around glass lobby, running along Valley Green road from the back and around the front of the building. A kitchen will provide meals for rehearsing Players, and food for other events as well, as this will now be the main meeting place for the much larger Upper School. There will be new lobby bathrooms. What a concept! The plans also include a pathway from the upper campus down to the Rec, so as to make it an integral part of the life of the school. The interior space is to be gutted, and all the windows reopened, with blackout capability for productions. There is to be a new multipurpose stage (so proscenium, three quarter and full round productions can be easily staged) and yes, New Seats! I am assured they are comfy. The folding ones can be finally consigned to the eternal discretion of the slag heap. There will be a new sound and light booth in its current approximate position, and all new, state of the art equipment. And… wait for it… New heating and air-conditioning for the entire building. The backstage area is to be extended to take up about half of the back lot, and I have every hope that they will be able to persuade the powers that be to move the maintenance department, so that the Rec can extend to the back (still leaving space for the outdoor Hokey-Pokey!). What does this mean, even without the full extension? Real Dressing Rooms!!!! Real Bathrooms!!! Scenery construction space, tool, paint and prop storage, a costume room, and a place to put makeup away after a production. I am breathless just thinking about it. More important to me, however, is that this is, in a way, a recognition of all that you did in your time as Players, what Players has meant to so many over the years. The Rec has been a home for all of us who collaborated there, who didn’t ask for much in return (well, sometimes!). We were a rag-tag, disparate group who did what we did because we loved it, because it gave us great satisfaction and pride. We made friends there. Some met their spouses there. But most of all it was, and still is, a safe place for everyone, backstage and onstage. Together we created that tradition of excellence that I so often referenced. You rose to the challenge and did not only succeed, you soared. Mr. Smith, Mr. Ervin and I watched with awe as you made each production your own and set a high bar for those who followed, to “creep their petty pace upon the stage.” Bravo! I am told that a generous benefactor has already made a substantial donation to get the ball rolling and that is wonderful news. You will be hearing more about this exciting project in the coming months, and when the time comes I know you will be generous in your giving, as you were with your time and talent and dedication as Players to what we did at the Rec. 

Warmest regards,
Courtland H. K. van Rooten HA