South High student wins scholarship

BY JAMES SANNA

At South, Eli is active in the theater department, most recently directing a sold-out performance of Bertolt Brecht’s “Threepenny Opera.”

South High student Eli Schlatter won a $5,000 scholarship for his leadership on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) issues in his church and school.  Schlatter won a “Moxie Award” from the Philanthrofund Foundation, a Minneapolis-based foundation dedicated to building resources and developing leaders in LGBT communities in the Upper Midwest.  Schlatter is a South High senior and a member of a Unitarian Universalist Church in St Paul.

“I mean, I’m not an activist at South,” Schlatter said.  “Maybe I’ve mentored a few students, but I think my leadership is more like ‘you can be out, and gay, and it’s OK.’

At South, Eli is active in the theater department, most recently directing a sold-out performance of Bertolt Brecht’s “Threepenny Opera.”  Both Lois
Rhomberg, the department’s technical director, and Frieda Bormann, the artistic director, praised his directing skill and his ability to mold a strong culture of respect and collegiality among the actors, who were mostly freshmen.
“Eli’s the kind of person who’ll remind you three months later” about a problem that everyone agreed to fix, said Rhomberg.  “His leadership is in remembering things and working to change the culture.”

At his church, Schlatter says he has been on a panel for the last three years with other out members of the congregation speaking to the high school
youth group as part of a sexuality education program run by the Unitarian Church, called “Our Whole Lives.”

“The atmosphere at the church is more supportively passive than active,” said Schlatter.  By speaking on the panel, “I wanted to show younger kids that there really is a youth LGBT community here.”

Next year, Schlatter said, he’s headed to the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, for its Theater Production program, and, hopefully, a career in stage
directing and technical theater.