Amid the turmoil of the abrupt closure of schools in the state March 13, Eisenhower High School head speech team coach Mark Urban photographed students assembled for the after school activity.
The moment was bittersweet.
Plans for the speech team to participate the next day in group interpretation competition at Richards High School in Oak Lawn had to be scrapped.
But even though in-person classes have been canceled statewide for the remainder of the school year, the show will go on for the Blue Island speech team students thanks to an assist from a national foundation.
The competition would have involved 27 Eisenhower students rendering a half-hour dramatization of mini monologues from “The Freedom Writers Diary,” a book written and assembled by Erin Gruwell, a teacher at Wilson High School in Long Beach, Calif.
The 1999 New York Times Best Seller depicts Gruwell’s real life efforts to inspire students to write and share their personal stories. The story collection was made into a 2007 feature film starring Hillary Swank.
Urban and his students had mined the book and screenplay for monologues to include in their half-hour production.
“I picked ‘Freedom Writers Diary’ because the demographics of Wilson and Eisenhower are about the same,” Urban said. “The students share many of the same issues — immigration, poverty, domestic discord, incarcerated parents. Many identified with stories they conveyed, and if they couldn’t identify, they tapped into their speech and acting tool kits.”
“When I heard we wouldn’t compete, I just felt lost, after all of the rehearsing, the late nights, the lost sleep,” said Chris Reyes, captain of Eisenhower’s team. He was prepared to play two parts — Andre, a student, and the school’s superintendent, Dr. Carl Cohn. Because Reyes hails from Mexico, the part of Andre became Andrés.
Student Alejandra Jaramillo has played the violin since 8th grade. She was to create mood music and play violin for the dramatization.
For Jaramillo and Reyes, who are seniors, there was an added disappointment. They might never see many of their classmates ever again.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the closing, Urban and other Eisenhower teachers, set about establishing an e-learning schedule for students to continue their studies from home. The process was made easier because the school issues students iPads, but those without Wi-Fi connections still needed print packets, Urban said.
“E-learning isn’t the ideal solution,” Reyes said. “It works, but it’s hard. It’s just not the same as being there in the room, being able to ask questions.” Even so, the iPads enabled the Group Interpretation students to continue their project.
“I think the single thing that bothered me most is that they would never get to perform for an audience,” Urban said.
Out of boredom, he started noodling around on the internet and located The Freedom Writers Foundation website.
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“In the dropdown window, I blindly started to type,” he said, “I actually felt I was gushing and pouring out my feelings about what happened. I was seeing if anyone there would be interested in helping us. I didn’t know how long it might take to get a response.”
Fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. It was Matt Martin-Hall, a marketing executive for the foundation, wanting to set up a spontaneous phone conference with Gruwell.
“She really wears her heart on her sleeve, she started crying,” Urban said. “She was so gracious, genuinely happy that I reached out.”
“You could just tell he was crestfallen,” Gruwell said of Urban. “Those students were going to state, they were going to win.” Gruwell shared Urban’s letter with colleagues at the foundation. “We all just started crying,” she said.
A week later, April 7, Gruwell and Urban pulled the students into a Zoom conference. All parties agreed to produce an online performance for a live watch party to be viewed on Facebook by teachers in the United States and 19 other countries who use Gruwell’s foundation as a teaching resource.
The teachers and the Eisenhower students could weigh in with their thoughts during the event, and the production would be retained online for later viewing.
So now, in addition to studying school lessons online, Reyes and Jaramillo and the other Group Interpretation students participate in online rehearsals to hone their skills.
For an added visual, Reyes uses a red bandana as a prop to distinguish the student character he plays from the school administrator. Jaramillo works on background violin music to accompany student’s lines.
Still, practicing together on Zoom with other students has presented challenges.
“There are echoes and delays, which makes it difficult,” Jaramillo said, “But at first I was disappointed about not competing. Now, I’m really glad to still have this opportunity.”
The Eisenhower student actors will record their performances in solitary video formats to be spliced together by technicians working for The Freedom Writers Foundation. Jaramillo will record her violin playing on a separate soundtrack, as will other students who play guitar and clarinet for the production.
This fall, Jaramillo, a Blue Island resident, plans to study music education at Illinois State University in Normal. Reyes, also a Blue Island resident, plans to study criminology at Western Illinois University in Macomb. They both hope to reunite with the Eisenhower senior class of 2020 sometime in late spring or summer.
They’re not certain when the production will be ready for viewing, but it will be posted at FreedomWritersFoundation.org when it’s finished.
Susan DeGrane is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.