Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy Students Lead Production of Newsies

Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy's spring musical "Newsies" opened Thursday night with something unusual powering it from behind the curtain: students are running nearly every aspect of the show.

Director Dana Robinette, who has served as the figurehead of Charter Drama for the past decade, is in her third trimester of pregnancy. Because of this, she chose to delegate many aspects of the show, including choreography, set design and prop construction, to a few trusted students. The result is a production that has handed real creative authority to the young people performing and building it.

The musical itself follows the newsboys of New York who are squeezed when the tyrannical newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer raises the price of papers, leaving the poor newsboys to shoulder the burden of an unprecedented price hike.

Nowhere is the student ownership more visible than in the pit orchestra. Under the leadership of senior trombonist Eddie Bardwell, the 11-member ensemble, with all 11 members being Charter students, clocked nearly 50 hours of rehearsal time in the buildup to opening night. Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy is one of the few schools in the area that has a student-led pit orchestra year in and year out, making Bardwell's role part of a deliberate institutional tradition rather than a one-time workaround.

The show runs through March 21, with all performances beginning at 7 p.m. and doors opening at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available online through cdacharter.square.site. General admission at the door is $10, student tickets are $5, and checks are accepted. Additional information is available at cdacharter.org or by calling 208-664-8176. Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy is located at 215 N. 2nd St. in Coeur d'Alene.