Local high school chosen to represent U.S. in international theatre festival

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    McCluer High School in the Ferguson-Florissant School District

    ST. LOUIS, MO. – McCluer High School, one of three high schools in the Ferguson-Florissant School District, has been chosen to have its theatre program represent the United States at the American High School Theatre Festival, which takes place every summer in Edinburgh, Scotland.

    McCluer was selected as one of 40 American high schools to represent the United States at the 2016 festival. Each year, 200 schools nationally are nominated and just 40 are selected. Nominations are made by cooperating universities or by directors who have attended the festival in previous years. An international panel of collegiate theatre professors then assesses the quality of each school’s theatre program through applications and video submissions.

    McCluer plans to participate in the 22nd annual festival, provided students and staff are able to raise the needed funds.

    “This is a tremendous achievement for all the hard-working students in our hard-working Drama Club,” said Doug Erwin, Director of Speech and Theatre at McCluer High School in a news release. “We are deeply honored to be one of the few predominantly African-American high school theatre programs in the United States to be selected to represent our country at the prestigious American High School Theatre Festival at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We hope to be able to raise the funds necessary to participate in the 2016 event.”

    The McCluer High School Theatre Department is currently looking at several fund-raising options for the participation of its Drama Club, which has more than 70 members, at the three-week-long festival.

    The cost is estimated to be $6,000 per student, or approximately $420,000 for the theatre department.

    Claire Wright
    Social Media and Marketing Intern