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Retiring teacher leaves legacy in ‘Escapades’
By MARY SMITH
MINERAL RIDGE
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The 2010 Escapades Variety Show at Mineral Ridge High School will include cancan dancers Jessica Fox, left, Alexa Papas, Megan Reinhart, Taylor Strohmeyer, Gina Papas and Mackenzie Rummell, posing at the high school on stage in their costumes.
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Mineral Ridge High School art teacher Pam Plesea, left, is retiring this year after 39 years, leaving behind a legacy in her extracurricular directorship of the popular variety show “Escapades.” Here she stands on stage at the high school with “Escapades’” costume designer Cheryl George.
Mineral Ridge High School art teacher Pam Plesea retires this year after 39 years, leaving behind a legacy in her extracurricular directorship of the popular variety show “Escapades.”
The show runs Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m. at the high school auditorium.
This is the 24th year and, coupled with a Christmas takeoff on “Escapades” named “Frosty Frolics,” the show has generated an estimated $200,000 in scholarship money. Proceeds have gone to the top 10 graduating Mineral Ridge seniors annually.
“This is my baby,” Plesea said.
She noted that getting everyone together for practice and creation of the show is difficult. “This is so hard. The kids have jobs and track and baseball and other extracurriculars. They are busy,” she said. “I’ll miss it, though; I know I will.”
Not only has she raised money through the show, but she also has taught an average of 200 students a year who participate in various aspects of its production — lessons they might not have learned otherwise.
Plesea said this teaches the students self- confidence, teamwork and dedication.
“We always say at the end of each year, we have to go a step higher next year. Each kid brings it a step higher. I’m very proud of them,” she said.
She started the show as yearbook adviser, and for a period of seven years, the show was used to help defray the costs of the yearbook.
Then the show switched to funding scholarships when Plesea became scholarship adviser, also overseeing the National Honor Society and the Beta Club. The show is the main source of local money given to graduating seniors. The scholarship committee gives a $1,000 scholarship to each of the top-10 graduating seniors yearly.
The show draws former students back to perform all the time, and this year, seven will be returning. The focus is on variety and comedy.
“On opening night, from the time they start, the show is theirs,” Plesea said of the students. “Everything is controlled by them, and they know exactly what to do and how to handle it.”
She credits the continued success of the show to a lot of community support, a dedicated school board and a cooperative superintendent.
The logistics of putting on a production such as “Escapades” every year finds production sets being built in Plesea’s art room, which is an industrial room with a garage door, allowing the sets to be constructed and then moved to the high school auditorium.
Choreographer is Shellie Rodriguez, who also is dance-line coordinator at the high school and a Ridge graduate who was in the show. Many of the students do their own choreography.
The show has a full costume department. Cheryl George makes all of the costumes and comes to rehearsals to fit the youths in the show.
Megan Reinhardt, 16, a junior, said she finds the show a “lot of fun.” She spoke as male students rehearsed a takeoff on an Irish river dance that “Escapades” bills as a “Meander Dance.” It features robust male dancers in a comedic routine doing their best Irish stepping.
The first time the show featured the dance was 1999 when the entire Ridge football offensive line danced. Senior Adam Gartner, a dancer in the routine, has been in the show for three years. “For students, it’s a real blast to be part of something like this,” he said.
Gartner also helps host the show and has several comedy routines. Plesea recruited him, as she has many students, once she learns they have a particular talent.
That work starts when fifth-grade students go to art class with her. Students continue in art with Plesea throughout high school, and she’s looking all the time for new talent in the ranks.
Tara Yacovone, 17, a senior, a dance-line member who will be doing a hip-hop dance in the show, said, “It’s fun. I couldn’t imagine not doing it.”
Schools Superintendent Damon Dohar said the district does not know yet who will head up the show next year. He said if no one wants to do it, Plesea may come back to direct.
“It’s hard to replace a legend,” Dohar said, adding, “She’s had a very meaningful part of every kid’s life in Mineral Ridge. I’m very proud of Pam.”
Plesea is a 1971 graduate of Youngstown State University with a bachelor of science in art education. She also studied music. Her son, Nate, lives in Howland, and she has a grandson, Zachary. She is church organist at Otterbein United Methodist Church, Cortland.