Nice Work, If you Can Get It - And Mr. S Has Shown Them How!

CARMICHAEL, CA (MPG) - With apologies to George Gershwin, the above sums up the long career of educator Ed (“Mr. S”) Santillanes (65), who will bow out as El Camino High School drama coach in June. After directing 16 shows, his retirement will follow a farewell production of “Nice Work If You Can Get It.” The musical comedy opens March 1 and runs until March 10 at the school.

Santillanes’ swan song is also the final show to be presented in El Camino’s “cafetorium.” Though divas Jessica Chastain and Kate Levering began brilliant careers hoofing around its makeshift stage, better things lie ahead. From next year, school productions will rejoice in an $11 million arts center. The coach’s exit might seem like poor timing, but he voices no regrets. “I’ve loved working with my drama students,” he says. “Their enthusiasm is inspiring, and we’ve had a good run together.  The new center will be great for them but I’m ready to retire.”

Staging “Nice Work” -- with a cast of 22 plus orchestra and 15 production staffers -- guarantees stress. “As an actor and director, I am used to what you must give up,” he says. “But students have all kinds of pressures -- homework, family obligations -- it’s hard to keep them all together. Keeping them off their cell phones at rehearsals is the hardest part. The choreographer and I are used to high anxiety.”

Santillanes began acting at Hollywood High School in his own teen years. Drama was his forte and -- while later teaching at Bella Vista High (Fair Oaks) and Winston Churchill Middle School (Carmichael) -- he moonlighted in Shakespearian productions. He joined El Camino High’s faculty 27 years ago, teaching English and running school radio and TV programs. Six years ago, he took over the drama gig and directed such plays as Agatha Christie’s “Mousetrap” and Noel Coward’s “Blythe Spirit.” His musicals have included “Kiss Me Kate,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “The Sound of Music.”

As a final effort, “Nice Work” produces unique challenges. A recovering alcoholic and 27-years sober, Mr. S had to coach leading man Adam Severeid to act tipsy in the title number. “It’s hard to direct a teenager to seem drunk,” he admits. “They haven’t the experience -- or if they have, they don’t want to admit it. In this case, I told Adam to watch Fred Astaire’s famous drunken dance with Marjorie Reynolds in ‘Holiday Inn.’ If there’s any such thing as a graceful drunk, Astaire was it.”

Another challenge was finding circa 1930s costumes. While the school prop box contained tuxes and gowns, they were more disco than Prohibition. “Out of the blue, a lovely Carmichael lady offered her late husband’s tuxes,” says the director. “He was a bandleader and kept dozens of dinner jackets. She also donated her own evening gowns for the girls. The cast was thrilled to look so authentic and elegant.”

A free-standing tub for a bathroom scene posed another prop dilemma. “In the end,” confides Santillanes, “we painted a horse trough white. We stuck it on casters, so it can roll round. It’s not quite what we wanted but it works.” Such a prop segues neatly to the director’s next step: retirement. Santillanes owns horses and a Fair Oaks horse property. On his bucket-list is riding in a cattle drive near the Nevada border this year.

Coaxing equines after coaching teenagers seems a quantum leap. “Like teenagers, horses can be temperamental,” considers the thespian/equestrian.  “But they don’t talk back. And in the stables, you don’t have to contend with cell phones.”

To purchase tickets for “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” visit El Camino High Schools Facebook page or call (916) 971-7453.