Sarah Rosenberg Puts the ‘Ma’ in Drama : Students Act As If Their Teacher Cares

Sarah Rosenberg, drama coach at a junior high school in one of the poorest areas in the San Fernando Valley, has found the key to putting together one of the most successful drama programs in the county.

“Sarah follows the first rule of drama,” said Bob Carrelli, a veteran drama teacher at high schools and colleges throughout the Valley. “ ‘Do what you can with what you’ve got.’ ”

That rule, along with an unusual measure of dedication and a refusal to settle for mediocrity, has put students at Maclay Junior High School in Pacoima at the top in areawide competitions in many of the 17 years that Rosenberg has been their drama coach.

Launched Careers

She has launched several professional theater arts careers and earned accolades from colleagues. This year she received an Apple Award from the Mayor’s Education Advisory Committee for her promotion of “learning excellence.”

Rosenberg, 41, works in a predominantly black and Latino neighborhood. Of the 1,100 students enrolled at Maclay, 582 receive free lunches and the parents of about 300 are on welfare, Los Angeles Unified School District officials said.

The school does not fare well academically, according to Pauline Hopper, assistant superintendent in charge of the Compensatory Education Program. She said that 935 of Maclay’s students recently scored below the national median in basic reading tests.

Jim Bell, a drama teacher at Palos Verdes High School, teaches students who compete with Rosenberg’s during semiannual festivals sponsored by the Drama Teachers of Southern California.

“The kids at Maclay--well I doubt many of them have ever seen a play before,” Bell said. “Whereas in Beverly Hills and Palos Verdes, where you have students from upper-middle- and middle-class homes, their parents regularly see plays and that puts them at an advantage.”

The more affluent schools have enviable resources. There are two theaters on the campus of Beverly Hills High School, and Bell said he had a budget of $16,000 for this summer’s musical production alone.

Students finance Maclay’s productions by selling baked goods, recycling aluminum cans and washing cars. The proceeds enable Rosenberg to stage several shows a year, including choreographed musicals with casts of more than 150.

Maclay students and Beverly Hills High ninth-graders have dominated the junior-high division of the festivals during the last four years. Although the sponsors do not keep records, faculty members from Maclay, Beverly Hills and Palos Verdes agree that first place has gone either to Beverly Hills or Maclay and only once to Palos Verdes in recent years.

Placed First in Contest

This year, Maclay placed first in the fall competition and second in the spring.

Former students credit Rosenberg not only with the festival victories but with introducing them to a productive life in theater arts.

“She’s been a big influence on my life and career so far,” said Donald Haynes, a Rosenberg student in 1974 who is now fine arts director of the Pacoima Youth Culture Center.

Haynes named five classmates who work as actors, models or dancers.

Vanessa Townsell, who began acting in a troupe formed by Haynes and other Rosenberg students, is one. She got her break in 1983, when chosen to replace Jennifer Holliday in the hit Broadway show “Dreamgirls.”

Recalling her days growing up in the Valley, she said: “We didn’t have as many theaters and a lot of people couldn’t afford to go. All the kids know is what Mrs. Rosenberg brings to their attention.”

Speaking at a summer drama program at California State University, Northridge, Rosenberg explained her love for teaching.

“The students are very honest,” she said. “They give you their all, and there is never a boring moment.”

“Drama is a great vehicle to bring these kids out of themselves,” she added. “You let them know you don’t accept mediocrity.”

Although Rosenberg is reluctant to talk about herself and her achievements, her colleagues speak of her skill and dedication. She and her husband, Jack, head counselor at Maclay, open their Chatsworth home to students for rehearsals and other get-togethers. They have taken students on vacations with them in their motor home and have even helped troubled ones with personal problems.

“She cares so much,” Bell said. “The kids know she cares. She becomes heavily involved in their personal lives.”

Haynes said that out of Rosenberg’s personal involvement with her students comes a more realistic directorial style. “Sitting at her house for dinner and conversation,” he said, “is a part of it.”

Distinctive Element

Bell said another distinctive element of Rosenberg’s style is allowing the students’ ethnic background to enrich their performances. “Their work reflects their black culture,” he said. “She gets them to be proud of it.”

Frank Maciel, a 16-year-old Maclay graduate who helps coach new students, put it this way: “Sometimes you know a kid speaks another language, but he is ashamed to admit it.” In the search for innovative characters and fresh voices to use for improvisation, however, Maciel said that students soon realize that they can draw on those language abilities.

“They start to think, ‘Hey, a little bit of an accent is going to be really good on this character,’ ” Maciel said.

Not that Rosenberg’s students can’t handle traditional forms, said fellow teacher Carrelli. “She can make Shakespeare contemporary without changing it or ruining it,” Carrelli said.

Carrelli said the students’ “diction is very good” when performing Shakespeare. “You don’t hear any street talk or black dialect, and there are none of the mannerisms associated with black speech.”

Rosenberg said she enjoys teaching students Shakespeare because “instead of reading literature, they’re living it.”

She said the language skills her students gain in drama are easily transferred to other classes. “They are very street-wise, very verbal, and it’s difficult when they don’t have reading skills at their grade level. But they begin to love reading.”

Former student Maciel summed it up this way:

“Once you’ve done Julius Caesar in seventh grade, you’re not afraid to read it in high school.”