Students play miner roles

Mountain Avenue Elementary School students held empty pie tins above their heads and sang Tuesday about the hope and agony of being a California Gold Rush-era miner.

Despite having to wade into icy waters to pan for gold, and frequently going home empty-handed, the miners in the school play were driven by the prospect of instant wealth.

“Still, I’ve got that any-day-now itch,” the pan miners sang. “I’m just one pan away from getting rich.”

The pan miners were one ensemble of students in Margo Ewing’s fourth-graders’ performance of “Gold Dust or Bust,” which told the story of how sleepy Northern California turned into a bustling, restless place with the onset of the Gold Rush in the 1840s.

Each year, Ewing directs a play with her students about a historical time period. Fourth-graders study the history of California, so the Gold Rush play is one of the shows that Ewing comes back to every few years.

“The goal is to get them to really learn the history,” she said.

Before 1848, Northern California was a subdued place, without smog or even statehood, the students sang during the show’s opening song. But that all changed when James Marshall discovered gold in Coloma, Calif., on Jan. 24, 1848. Marshall and the man he was working for, John Sutter, tried to keep their discovery quiet.

“It’s our little secret . . . it’s just between us,” sang 10-year-old Blake Omartian, who played Marshall, and 11-year-old Varoujon Shahmirian, who played Sutter.

But they couldn’t keep the secret, and gold fever struck.

Girls dressed in bonnets and boys in suspenders related the troubles of the folks who traveled over land to reach California.

“Rivers swell up and you can’t get across . . . some get sick and the others get lost,” sang Ashley Kim, who played one of the overland trekkers.

Others, who became known as the Argonauts, reached California by boat, traveling around South America to get west.

That trip wasn’t easy, either, sang the six students who played the Argonauts.

“We’re going nuts — 16,000 miles by ship,” they lamented.

Pan miners searched for gold in rivers. Others made money off the miners themselves.

Luzena Wilson, for instance — who was one of the first women to come to California in search of gold — made a good living by cooking food for the miners, said Lauren Bader, 10, who portrayed Wilson in the show.

But by 1855, the gold rush had slowed, as many of the would-be miners settled into more mundane jobs, the students explained.

“Funny thing about the Gold Rush. It just petered out,” Lauren said at the close of the play.

The best part about doing the play, said 9-year-old Mark Matheu, who played a merchant in the show, was “you get to be another person and learn about the history from before you were born.”

It was also good preparation for future theatrical endeavors, said Troy Viola, 9, who played a carnival barker.

“It’s fun, and it’s getting you ready for next time you do a play. And it’s getting you ready to do larger acting like in L.A.,” he said.