| Posted on Tue, May. 14, 2002 Contra Costa Times Skyline's brightest star gives something back By B. Roscoe STAFF WRITER Oakland has been home to many celebrities, but few of them have the name recognition that comes from earning back-to-back Academy Awards for best actor. Skyline High School, still a bastion of talent for the performing arts, boasts an alumni list that includes perhaps the most well-known name in Hollywood: Tom Hanks. Despite his super stardom, Hanks has earned a reputation of being Mr. Nice Guy. He lives up to the reputation by caring enough about his roots to be the honorary chairperson of a fund-raising campaign that's made Skyline's Theater perhaps the most high-tech high school theater in the Bay Area. Begun in 1999, the Skyline Parent-Teacher-Student Association Performing Arts Committee campaign has enabled the school to completely overhaul and update its electrical, lighting and sound systems; restore and remount all the theater seats; restore the stage; and upgrade the stage rigging, scenery and curtains to create a nearly state-of-the-art performance space. A generous grant from the Tom and Rita Hanks Foundation gave fund-raising a boost when the school's bond-funded modernization budget ran out about a year ago. The theater, which is utilized almost daily, is open to all of Skyline's students and is also used for performances by Montera Middle School's burgeoning performing arts program. Money continues to be raised through contributions from people who have donated the requisite $100 to the "Buy a Seat" fund-raiser to have their names engraved on a brass plate to be permanently attached to one of the 900 new seats in the theater. Donors who have contributed at this level or above will be invited to a private gala dedication that will mark the official renaming of the facility in honor of Rawley T. Farnsworth, Skyline's distinguished drama teacher from 1968-1982. The event is scheduled for June 1 and will feature Hanks, Farnsworth, other alumni and student performers. A Skyline graduate in 1974, Hanks spoke with the Montclarion to share his reasons for supporting the fund-raising campaign and give a little advice to aspiring actors. Having spent 10th grade "lost," with no real direction or goals, Hanks said that discovering drama was a life-changing experience. "Much like most of my life, I didn't know what was possible," he said. "I tried to be on the soccer team, and I ran track. And I thought that was the extent of the extracurricular activities that were available to me. And then, seeing my friend in one of the plays, 'Dracula,' I said, 'This happens in high school? Where has this been? I had no idea.' So, starting my junior year, I began taking the drama classes, and then literally something exciting was happening everyday." Because of the impact that acting has had on Hanks' life, he is passionate and direct about why the performing arts are important. "My experience in high school was, I discovered this incredible thing that came as a total surprise to me," said Hanks, the amazement of the discovery still coloring his words. "It was outside the pale of what I thought going to school was supposed to be, which is, you take a history class, you take an English class, you take a math class, you take gym, and that was it. But here was this thing at Skyline that was all about performing. They have these spaces and they had the faculty, and (drama) was what their expertise was. And so that exposure, even in the realm of high school . . . was an extraordinary thing." Its impact on Hanks, 45, is obvious. But why is a professional-caliber theater so important for high school students? "A lot of times the concept of drama or the performing arts is standing up on some risers in front of the PTA . . . maybe doing something in the gymnasium on a special night," explained Hanks. But, he continued, "Having an actual theater that, in a lot of ways, even surpasses the level of some of the true professional theater that they can work in later on in life, is just a huge national resource. That you have a stage, with a backstage area, that you have decent lighting and decent draperies, that you have seats that people come in for the specific purpose of watching something go on like that, it just raises the bar of the experience," said Hanks. "It would be the difference between having one computer in the computer class that is 17 years old and having a new iMac sitting at every desk," he said. "It brings you closer to the actual connection to what it takes in order to perform live in front of people -- that you're actually doing even more in order to make it a true artistic moment." For Hanks, that's what can make the difference in a student's future. He points to friends who pursued careers based on classes that were available to them at Skyline. "I remember at Skyline they had a drafting class. I couldn't believe there were people who were actually interested in being draftsmen. I know two guys that I went to school with who took drafting in high school, and they're architects now," he explained. "If you don't have the access or the exposure or the ability for young human beings to experience (some new skill) for the first time -- like the joy of working with numbers -- that'd be a terrible thing," he said. "That's the best argument, the truest argument, in order to make sure that schools can have these kinds of things. It's the same idea, I guess, as making sure you have a football team and a track, you know, the sports facilities and all that." When talking about his days at Skyline, Hanks made it sound like the memories are still quite fresh. He remembers well where his successful journey began and offers this advice to today's students with the same goals. "It's very simple. Keep acting," he said. "If students are interested in pursuing a life in the theater, you have to start doing it every opportunity that you can -- beginning right now. You have to go anywhere and volunteer or audition or be involved in any possible place that will give you the chance to get up and perform somehow. If you don't, that means you don't really have the passion in order to do it, you just have the desire. I mean, everybody's got the desire -- well, most people have the desire -- to stand up on a stage and be the center of attention. But if you're not actually pursuing it now, at every chance you get, or creating your own opportunities to do it, then you're not going to go anywhere," said Hanks. He also noted that there are plenty of opportunities outside of Hollywood. "In a place like the Bay Area, there's a lot of small theater companies around. There's a lot of not-for-profit community theaters. There are plenty of schools doing stuff. Or you could do it in your own garage. It's just a way in order to do it, which you're always pursuing it, and you're always doing it. And that's the way to not only learn the craft but also make the contacts for later on," instructed Hanks. "You don't meet somebody by accident in a restaurant or on a bus and have that be your big break. You do your job, and somebody sees you do that. And that's the thing that leads to you actually progressing along in your career." The Skyline theater project is important to Hanks because of the passion for drama that was ignited in him and the need to make that kind of possibility a reality for more students. "If our public schools are there in order to do something other than babysit our kids for six hours a day, if they're really supposed to be a place, not where they're taught stuff that they need to know for their future lives, but where they get to discover a part of themselves that can lead to their future lives -- ya know, that if you have chalk and a chalkboard and computers in order to do math skills, if you have Bunsen burners and the periodic tables in order to learn stuff about science -- then you also need these kinds of places where they can learn about the performance arts. I mean, that was the best thing that came out of it (for me)," said Hanks. "When you actually have the stage that works, and the theater and the plant and the dressing room that works, it just means you're able to see even more -- learn even more -- about what is required in order to get up and perform in front of people and hold their attention." That's a skill he certainly understands. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Only a handful of seats at Skyline High School's theater are still available for those wishing to make fund-raising pledges to this cause. For more information contact Kathy or David Kahn at 482-5776 or [email protected]. |
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