McFadden’s former students from as long ago as the 1980s are joining current Thunderbird students to put on the play. That’s what’s been so hard…that I didn’t get to tell her thank you and I didn’t get to say goodbye.” “By the time I realized I needed to see her and say goodbye, it was too late. “I got busy,” Duckworth-Barnes said, tears in her eyes. A few years later, she attended her former teacher’s funeral. Her supporters hope to eventually get the high school’s theater building named after her.ĭuckworth-Barnes remembers the last time she visited McSpadden at the school. She volunteered with the theater program until 2013, when she died of cancer.ĭuckworth-Barnes, who created the Janie “Mac” Memorial project to show her appreciation, said the play is to connect alumni and raise money for a marquee in McSpadden’s name. She taught at Thunderbird from 1977 until she retired in 2003. The play was a favorite for Jane McSpadden, known as “Mac,” a thespian committed to the profession and her students. Karen Duckworth-Barnes, a former student from the class of 1996, gathered former and current students to put on the “The Boys of Winter,” about two boys who become friends as hockey players and, years later, meet one another again as soldiers in the Vietnam War. ![]() ![]() Stage hands run a red gel over the stage backdrop to cast a scarlet glow over the set, lighting a scene of a military recruitment office in 1968.Īctors and stagehands are preparing for a play to honor theater teacher Jane McSpadden, who taught at Thunderbird High School for four decades and died of cancer four years ago. Two boys jump up and down, vibrating with excitement as they don military uniforms under the house lights. (Photo courtesy of Karen Duckworth-Barnes) Jane McSpadden, a theater teacher for more than four decades who died four years ago, holds flowers after one of her shows.
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