Tag Archives: Berkeley High
Berkeley High students produce independent theater
In 1913, Thornton Wilder, then a junior at Berkeley High School, wrote a one-act play, The Advertisement League, that was good enough to be selected for the school’s wildly popular vaudeville show.
Like many teenagers, Wilder felt constrained by his father’s demands, according to Penelope Niven, the author of Thornton Wilder: A Life. So he included a figure designed to irk his father, one based on Mrs. Lydia Pinkham, the Massachusetts woman whose popular “medicine” apparently cured all evils.
The skit is “a truly original conception,” wrote the yearbook Olla Podrida, according to Niven.
One hundred years later, that spirit of dramatic whimsy and defiance continues at Berkeley High. It can be seen in this year’s Independent Theater Projects, which take place at the Hillside Club March 22, March 24, and March 29 at 7 p.m.
Juveniles in custody after fights outside Berkeley High
Scroll down for an update from Berkeley High’s principal at the foot of this story.
Four juveniles were taken into custody on suspicion of fighting outside Berkeley High School on Wednesday afternoon.
Large crowds of students and passers-by gathered near the intersection of Bancroft Way and Milvia Street shortly after students were leaving the campus at the end of the school day to watch the fights, according to officer Jennifer Coats at the Berkeley Police Department.
Many Berkeley police officers were dispatched to the area after receiving calls from the public, starting at 3:41 p.m, and they worked to disperse the large groups of onlookers. Officers were able to disperse the crowds, and they took four juveniles into custody in connection with the fighting, Coats said. … Continue reading »
