Letter to the editor

Henry White

Dear Editor,

What do you think this school values the most? Activity-wise? Clearly the pecking order goes football, the other sports then significantly lower is literally everything else. This isn’t just a Manitou thing, though. It happens at almost every school. What doesn’t happen, though, is the complete neglect for our theatrical accomplishments.

Recently, the cast of the One-Act went to compete at Palmer Ridge highschool against 7 other schools and came out with a “First Place” trophy as well as a “Best Ensemble” trophy. When we came back to school the next Monday, we were greeted with tons of praise from all of the teachers and a great place to put our trophies as well and an enthusiastic announcement in the morning. Just kidding. We received minimal praise with a lack-luster announcement. The thing I didn’t realize at the time was the fact that our trophy case was in disarray. When I went to my first block class the next day, coincidentally, we were talking about things that we were passionate about in school. I brought up the lack of appreciation for the arts at this school and that’s when one of my friends dropped the bomb: the administration didnt even know where the key to the theater trophy case was.

I already knew that there was a broken trophy in our trophy case, which they apparently didn’t care enough about to fix, but what I didn’t know was the reason they hadn’t taken it out yet. My friend said that he went and asked Mrs. Glass and Mr. Jones to help him get the broken trophy out of the case. They both said that they did not know where the key was and they put in little effort to look for it.

When I heard this I was appalled. I felt a tingling in my hands and the blood rushed to my face. How could they not know where the key to the theater trophy case was? It was one of the very little things that the Theater Department had and clearly it wasn’t a priority.

The theater trophy case has been disrespected and disregarded for too long and it is overdue for a change. The Manitou Springs Theater Department is severely neglected and the least that could be done is helping us show off our hard-earned accomplishments with the same respect that goes to any sport.

Sincerely,
Henry White (12)
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