Letzter to close 30-year career at West Aurora High

Thirty years ago as a new teacher at West Aurora High School, Donna Letzter was asked to step in to put on the school's spring musical with a budget of $1,500 and six weeks to go till show time.

English teacher Letzter selected Broadway's "Bye Bye Birdie," recruited a couple of other young teachers and parents to help her with the costumes and choreography and started a grand tradition of spring shows that will come to an end in May after she directs her final play before her retirement in August.

West High will not only lose its drama sponsor, it will also lose an English teacher and its director of student activities.

Letzter was also honored as the 2007 Kane County Teacher of the Year.

"She's a true leader," said first year principal Dan Bridges. "It's amazing the quality of productions she puts on. She will be really hard to replace."

Bridges said the activities director is the person responsible for coordinating the 90 plus student clubs and scheduling events throughout the school. He said he will replace Letzter's activity director role with a full-time administrator.

"She's leaving huge shoes to fill," said English teacher Barb Blom, who helped Letzter with that first production 30 years ago.

"She is so unique to our school. She's taught students of former students and has great ties to the community. Her presence will be felt here long after she's gone," Blom said.

"I grew up here. I'm hoping that part of me haunts the halls forever," Letzter said during a recent Saturday rehearsal of "Rent", her final musical selection.

After that initial experience with "Bye Bye Birdie," Letzter knew she was home.

"There's not too many of us left from that group," she said. "It was so exciting to develop the curriculum and have so many ideas."

Letzter said now is the time for the young teachers.

"Now is their time. We have to leave in order to allow rebirth to occur," she said.

Her legacy will live on as she leaves former students and now West High teachers Ken Ruffalo and John Proczko to direct future plays at the school.

Ruffalo has been shadowing Letzter for six years and he has asked Letzter to sit in on the auditions next year. Letzter has also offered her help to the new advanced placement English teachers who are taking over the classes next year. And she will spend the summer training her replacement as director of student activities.

I met with Letzter in the school's Tiki-themed teacher's lounge while the 60 member cast was rehearsing a song from the rock opera in the student cafeteria nearby.

"I feel strange being in here while they are working on that song," she said. "But we're here till four," she smiled, knowing that she would rejoin the rehearsal in due time.

"I feel I should be doing it. In my head I know how it all fits together," she said.

Jonathan Larson's "Rent" is a 1996 rock opera that chronicles the years in the life of New York artists and their friends who are living with AIDS.

"This year I went to the new principal (Bridges) and said 'Do you trust me?' and I gave him all my reasons for wanting to do 'Rent,' " she said. "The play has the reputation of being racy, but the high school version is definitely PG."

"He told me that I have never let the district down before and that his wife really liked the play," she said.

Letzter's core theater students had strong opinions about the play selection this year, she said. "They came to me and said 'Oh please don't do 'High School Musical'…it's so junior high.' "

Letzter chose "Rent" as her final play using the same criteria she has used for all the school's plays.

"My job is to broaden their understanding of an era and to show how we are more similar than different," she explained. "High school theater is educational theater. We have to educate the cast, the students and the community."

Letzter's past selections of "West Side Story", "Les Miserables", "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Miss Saigon" and "Fame" also expanded on the theme of "embracing differences rather than reject them. Kids respond to emotions they understand," she said.

West Aurora High School is the first high school in the country to perform "Rent."

Just as Letzter had to wing it in her first West High production 30 years ago, she and her team are making changes on the fly with "Rent".

"They sent us the music by e-mail because it wasn't printed out yet," she said. "We got the script as a pdf file. We are even customizing the pit music ourselves."

As for her future, Letzter is looking at teaching opportunities at local colleges.

"I'd like to teach English or speech theater at the college level. I've looked at Northern Illinois University, Aurora University and North Central College. If they don't want me I will consider adjunct work at Waubonsee or Kiswaukee Community College," Letzter said. "I can't see myself staying home."

For the near term her goal is to clean her home in DeKalb really well.

"My mother was a fanatic about cleaning and so am I," she explained. "The cool thing about cleaning is that you see the results. I don't always see the results of my teaching efforts, but I do with my cleaning."