Pass Christian students have turned cafeterias, gyms and libraries into performance spaces as the school district’s arts programs have grown.
Now, students and school leaders hope a proposed $9.5 million performing arts center will bring those programs together under one roof. The facility would give the district a dedicated auditorium for the first time since Hurricane Katrina destroyed its former one.
Senior Leeka McBride performs with the high school show choir. The group practices in a choir room near the gym and divides into smaller groups when using its current stage. Its fall and spring shows are held in the middle school cafeteria.
“We’ve made do with what we have,” McBride said. “(A performing arts center) would just really empower the students that we have to feel more confident in themselves just to have a real stage and not look at lunch tables while we perform.”
A dedicated space for students
For students in theater, sharing performance spaces also means working around other school activities.
Eriyuana Barnes participates in theater inside and outside the school. School productions use a stage in the gym, where rehearsals can be interrupted when another group needs the space.
“It would be helpful for all of us to rehearse in a space that we don’t have to move from, or just be there in general,” Barnes said. “The space for people to watch would be bigger and people won’t have to stand.”
A dedicated center could also allow the district to host show choir competitions.
Senior Isaiah Lizana travels with the show choir to competitions in Biloxi, Petal, the Jackson area and Alabama. He said Pass Christian does not host competitions because it doesn’t have a suitable stage.
“We have the space to host and have groups come into our classrooms and get ready there, but we have nowhere for them to perform or to even try to compete,” Lizana said.
Lizana said hosting competitions in Pass Christian would allow students to work behind the scenes and bring performers from surrounding schools to the area.
“It would be awesome for the community to come see everyone — not just from Pass — but all the way from Long Beach to the Bay,” Lizana said. “If everyone could come see us here, I think that would be really cool.”
School leaders hope to build on recent additions to the district’s arts programs, including show choir, visual arts, theater and a small black box performance space.
The performing arts center became a priority during the development of the district’s New Horizons 2030 strategic plan. The planning process included 84 students, teachers, administrators, school board members and community members.
“The strategic planning committee really leaned into the main piece that we’re missing now is the Performing Arts Center,” Superintendent Carla J. Evers said.
A community venue
The district also plans to make the performing arts center available for concerts, plays, art displays, political debates and other community needs.
Senior Alex Bosarge is part of Theater in the Pass, a community theater group with members from around the area.
His group currently rehearses at the public library and the Randolph Center. Bosarge said its current production, “The Nutcracker,” has more than 40 cast members, making those spaces a tight fit.
“We make the best of it,” Bosarge said. “It definitely would be nice to have a bigger space for how large of a thing that Theater in the Pass is becoming.”
Bosarge said a local venue would give students and artists more opportunities to showcase their talents without going out of town.
Paying for the center
To build that space, the district is turning to donors and seeking grant funding.
The district has launched an $8.6 million fundraising campaign called “Raise the Curtain” and is applying for grants to cover the remaining cost of the proposed $9.5 million center.
The final cost will depend on the bidding process. The district hopes to open the center by 2029.
Donation options range from $250 for an engraved brick to $5 million for naming rights, pending school board approval. The district is also offering sponsorships for the stage, classrooms, lighting and auditorium seats.
“We feel like we have the capacity along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and really in Mississippi, in the Gulf Coast region at large, to raise a great deal of this money,” Evers said.
Bosarge, Lizana and McBride will all graduate before the proposed center opens, but they hope future students will have access to it.
“I want people in the future to be able to do the things that they love and not have to leave their city to do it,” Bosarge said.
