For Cedarbrook Middle School, the show will go on

Putting on a show probably was never this difficult for the teen thespians at Cedarbrook Middle School.

This, after all, is the Cheltenham Township school that has tackled The Laramie Project and other challenging pieces of theater.

But last year, the Cedarbrook cast and crew became a troupe without a stage, displaced because of an insidious interloper. Mold had invaded their classrooms, and officials closed the school.

"It was hard to say goodbye," said Robin Rosenberg, Cedarbook's longtime show director. "And then there was the uncertainty. . . . We couldn't let [the show] die."

Rosenberg, music director Noah Mallitz, and their performing arts team vowed that the show would not get lost in the rush of relocation activity that followed. This week, the show will go on, though not in Cheltenham.

The quirky Addams Family is to be performed Thursday through Saturday at nearby Springfield High School in Montgomery County. That the curtain will rise at all is the product of a logistical juggling act that officials say reflects the challenge Cedarbrook and the district have coped with in the year since students and staff left the building.

"It's tantamount to a three-dimensional chess game," said Russell Bender, Cedarbrook's acting principal.

The school for seventh and eighth graders closed early last year with students reassigned to three buildings, splintering the Cedarbrook community.

The division is likely to last until at least September 2017, when a new school is scheduled to open. Construction on Longfellow Road, the site of the current building, is likely to begin in early 2016, Bender said.

Last week, the school board voted to hire Gilbert Architects Inc. of Lancaster to design the $50 million building. The firm is to present a proposal at a district Facilities Committee meeting planned for May 5.

"I miss the sense of togetherness we had," said 14-year-old student performer Jalayna Mancini. "I just miss my friends."

Mancini is part of a group of students relocated to a section of Cheltenham High School, referred to as Cedarbrook Central. The remaining students were assigned to a vacant school building at St. Joseph parish nearby (Cedarbrook East) or an empty school building owned by the Allegheny Conference Corporation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Springfield Township (Cedarbrook West).

Students were moved in stages starting in February 2014. As a result, transportation, scheduling, and staff assignments were reorganized.

Bus drivers now pick up and drop off the school's 700 students at the three locations. Travel time has increased. Class schedules and times have changed. Teachers travel among buildings.

The logistical changes continue after school, when students are transported to extracurricular activities, such as rehearsing for the school show.

For a time, Rosenberg, Mallitz, and their students had no place to stage their spring musical.

The Cheltenham High auditorium was off limits because the older students were preparing for their own show. Other spaces in the district were too small.

"We went theater shopping," Rosenberg said of the visits she and Mallitz made to venues throughout the area.

Eventually they discovered Springfield High. That district's officials offered the space at no charge, except for a nominal fee for custodial help.

Once the venue was secure, there was the issue of rehearsal space. With Springfield and Cheltenham preparing for their own shows, Cedarbrook was relegated to a cafeteria.

Students practiced in Cheltenham High's lunch room while schoolmates in other clubs met at nearby tables, and teens came to buy snacks from the vending machine.

"It was crazy, but we made it work," Rosenberg said.

Last week, with just one week remaining until the show, the production's 70 cast members rehearsed at Springfield High while crew members fine-tuned a set that had to be built during four days of spring break.

"It's kind of like my song 'Happy/Sad,' " said Matt Ryan, 14, who plays Gomez. "It's sad we are not at Cedarbrook anymore, but cool we are here now and back to being a family."

The reunion of that family will take some time and have new members, both students and staff. District officials are searching for a permanent principal who administrators hope can start as soon as possible, Bender said.

For now, the school will continue to handle the complicated business of being a community divided.

"It's just a lot more work and a lot more stuff," Rosenberg said. "But we've survived, and we're putting on a musical."

kholmes@phillynews.com 610-313-8211