Auburn’s longtime performing arts instructor retires

The curtain has fallen on Warren Kerr’s career as longtime performing arts teacher at Auburn High School.

Family, friends and colleagues gathered last Friday to celebrate Kerr’s many accomplishment in the classroom and on stage in the Auburn School District.

Beginning in the early 1990s, Kerr helped in school play productions with Brynne Garman at Olympic Junior High School and Paul Fouhy at Auburn High School. He took over the after-school drama program at Olympic Middle School and continued to volunteer with Fouhy’s theatre srts program.

Kerr later transferred to Auburn High School to teach science and continued to volunteer with Fouhy and Kathy Hirose on shows. During his time at Auburn he worked as a lead technician under the tutelage of Bill Profit for the Performing Arts Center.

In 2005, Kerr took over as the drama teacher and club director at Auburn High.

All told, Kerr has worked on more than 150 seasonal shows – designing, painting and directing.

Kerr’s last play at Auburn High School this spring was among his favorites. “The Laramie Project: Ten Years After” – in which Kerr acted – created a space for students, staff and alumni to come together and create an unusual documentary-style work of art that remains in many hearts. The audience was emotionally moved and quite possibly learned something about the play’s message of acceptance and forgiveness.

Career in the arts

Besides seeing most of the Shakespeare canon of plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and every production at OSF since 2006, Kerr’s most memorable theatre experiences have been taking two separate theatre trips to London and the United Kingdom, seeing 23 plays in about four weeks’ time. He has also had the pleasure of seeing Helen Mirren, Judy Dench and Kathryn Hepburn on stage.

Kerr’s first play was in high school at Mount Diablo High School in Concord, Calif.. He was the ghost who uttered no lines in “The Innocents”, and portrayed Uncle Henry and the voice of Toto in “The Wizard of Oz”.

Kerr began as an accounting major in college and soon switched to science education and performed theatre as “an activity.” He became a house manager for many plays and musicals at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore. He also did summer musicals in McMinnville at the Gallery Players of Oregon on the Linfield campus and finished his college theatre work by singing and dancing in the musical “1776”.

Out of college he built a long career of volunteering with civic theatre productions, working on set and light design, directing and some acting. These theatre groups included The Gallery Players of Oregon; Klamath Civic Theatre; The Linkville Players; Puget Sound Musical Theatre Company; Encore Theatre Company; Valley Community Players; Driftwood Theatre; and Tacoma Musical Playhouse.

At its best, beyond the need for live entertainment, Kerr truly believes that theatre has a lot to teach the world.

Warren Kerr performs his last play at Auburn High School, “The Laramie Project: Ten Years After”, which is among his favorites. RACHEL CIAMPI, Auburn Reporter

Warren Kerr performs his last play at Auburn High School, “The Laramie Project: Ten Years After”, which is among his favorites. RACHEL CIAMPI, Auburn Reporter

Auburn High School drama teacher Warren Kerr, right, in a scene with fellow teacher Tom Kaup from the production of “The Laramie Project: Ten Years After”. RACHEL CIAMPI, Auburn Reporter

Auburn High School drama teacher Warren Kerr, right, in a scene with fellow teacher Tom Kaup from the production of “The Laramie Project: Ten Years After”. RACHEL CIAMPI, Auburn Reporter