Members of MCAA's "Twelfth Night" cast rehearse at the school's outdoor performance space in Marysville, nearly 10 years after the academy last staged the play in the Marysville Community Auditorium. Photo Courtesy of Matt DeMeritt

MARYSVILLE, CA (MPG) - Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts (MCAA) has become one of the region’s most highly recognized high schools, earning awards and national recognition while building its identity around theater, dance, music, photography, graphic design and other arts programs.

According to the 2026 U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools rankings, MCAA placed among the top 4% of public high schools nationwide and first in the Yuba City metropolitan area, all while operating out of portable classrooms and piecing together borrowed and rented spaces for major productions. Now Theater Director Matt DeMeritt, along with students, alumni, parents and community supporters, is asking the Marysville Joint Unified School District to change that.

“Our students are succeeding academically and artistically at extraordinary levels in drama. Our productions have grown. We take home awards. Our kids are going to high-level national training programs,” DeMeritt told the MJUSD Board of Trustees during public comment Aug. 25. “MCAA needs a dedicated indoor performance and event facility of its own, a home for events, assemblies, ceremonies and the larger life of our school.”

For nearly a decade, MCAA has had no permanent performance venue of its own. The school once regularly used the Marysville Community Auditorium before its closure in March 2017 because of seismic safety concerns. Its final production there was a 2016 fall staging of William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” Now, 10 years later, MCAA is returning to the same play, but this time, the production is headed outdoors.

“I believe that this is our moment, because our facilities have stagnated, but MCAA has flourished,” DeMeritt said. “It’s time we build spaces worthy of what our students are accomplishing.”

Since losing the auditorium, DeMeritt said students have performed outside, rented the Sutter Theater in Yuba City, used Marysville High School’s South Auditorium when available and transported students, sets and equipment between locations. The dance department has also performed in a middle school gym.

The challenges have sometimes gone beyond inconvenience. DeMeritt said a flea infestation displaced two main-stage productions during the 2023-24 school year, while rats in the South Auditorium halted rehearsals for weeks last year.

Now, DeMeritt said new scheduling procedures at Marysville High School mean dates his program requests months in advance can be superseded by MHS events up to two weeks beforehand, creating additional uncertainty when planning productions. His campaign, dubbed “10 Years Without a Stage,” has two primary goals: improving MCAA’s existing outdoor stage with a roof, lighting truss, portable audience seating and other additions, while developing an actionable plan for a permanent indoor performance and event facility.

“An outdoor venue cannot be our only long-term solution,” DeMeritt told trustees. “This is the Yuba-Sutter area: heat, wind, rain. There simply isn’t a realistic way for an outdoor venue to serve our students year-round.”

DeMeritt returned to the board Sept. 8 with additional supporters and again Sept. 22, when alumni, parents, community members and students joined the call for a permanent facility. Amanda Davis, owner of Transitions Dance Center in Yuba City and one of MCAA’s early students, told trustees she has worked with the school for more than 20 years as a teacher, substitute, guest instructor and choreographer.

“It is deeply disappointing to watch a highly ranked high school filled with academic and artistic excellence continue to be asked to make do with temporary and piecemeal solutions for something as fundamental as a permanent home,” Davis said.

Davis advocated for a purpose-built MCAA campus that could include dance and art studios, rehearsal spaces, media labs, classrooms and a performance venue.

“MCAA students are constantly asked to make it work, and they do,” she said. “But their ability to adapt should not be mistaken for a reason to continue giving them less.”

Former Marysville Mayor Ricky Samayoa, whose son is an MCAA sophomore, brought trustees a potential funding avenue. Samayoa asked district staff to investigate California’s Career Technical Education Facilities Program and the possibility of developing an MCAA Arts, Media and Entertainment Career Pathway Center incorporating technical theater, music, dance, graphic design, digital media and performance. He also encouraged the district to involve Yuba College, employers, arts organizations, industry professionals, alumni, families and other community partners in planning.

MCAA senior Nicole Podolskaya spoke about what theater has meant to her personally.

“Theater isn’t just a hobby for me; it’s a lifeline,” Podolskaya said. “No venue means limited creativity and expression,” she said. “It means more time spent focusing on logistics than education, more money spent on temporary solutions that fail to solve the real problem.”

There have been signs of movement since DeMeritt began addressing the board. By Sept. 22, DeMeritt said Superintendent Reeves and other district administrators had visited MCAA and toured off-campus facilities while exploring possible solutions.

According to DeMeritt, district representatives toured facilities operated by Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture, although travel to Yuba City could make that option impractical for regular school use. DeMeritt and others also toured the sanctuary of the former St. John’s Episcopal Church near MCAA as another potential performance space. DeMeritt described those discussions as preliminary but said he was encouraged by the district’s involvement.

“Our request at this point is to keep the process moving,” he told trustees Sept. 22.

He is asking district leaders to establish a clearer facilities-planning process identifying who will participate, what options will be considered and when the issue will return for additional discussion.

“We’ve been doing this for 10 years and we’ve been making it work,” DeMeritt said. “And now with everyone involved, district, community, students, parents, we have an opportunity to work together on something more lasting.”

His message to the board in August was simple.

“Ten years without a stage,” DeMeritt said. “Let’s make 2027 the year we change that.”