Gathering around as students perform. Watching students dance. Listening as the band plays. At the beginning of July, construction for a new structure in the Cypress Creek courtyard began. The new structure is not only a stage, but also a place where students and staff can go and express themselves.
Our Cypress Creek band performed every Friday morning during football season on the new stage. Previously, our band performed in front of the large staircase at the backend of the courtyard.
“I see more kids gathering around in the morning when they (The Band of Coyotes) play out there. So, it is a cool situation to have,” Cypress Creek High School Principal, Carin Hetzler-Nettles said.
Before the stage, the space was used as a decorative piece with the Coyote statues surrounded with grass. Now it is used as an interactive place for everyone.
Warren Underwood, Director of Theatre Studies, was sitting with Shenan Stewart, the Cypress Creek Plant Manager. Underwood reflected, “I was talking to her (Stewart) about me doing a production in the courtyard and she was like, ‘are you going to do it in the planter?’”
Underwood continued, “And I was like, there’s grass there. So no, but if it were a stage, we could do it. And she goes, we should make the stage happen.” Following the discussion with Stewart, Underwood asked Zach Kreider, Art Teacher, to create a drawing of what the area could look like with a stage replacing the decorative landscaping.
In the future, the new stage will be the location of many great performances. The theatre group recently performed “Romeo and Juliet” on the stage and several other performances are being planned. “We had Pasco Pathways here, I’m going to put the saxophone choir up there that we’re developing,” stated Katherine Strok-Feeley, the Cypress Creek band instructor. As the curtains fall on this story, the story continues to unfold with every note played, every step taken, and every expression shared on the new stage in the Cypress Creek courtyard.
