With Winter’s Tale ending two weeks ago, the one remaining Advanced Drama performance for the year will be Motherlode, a play put on and produced by only the Seniors of the program. For the seniors, this will be their last show for EPiC. It also marks the departure of two of the most dedicated members of EPiC.

Two seniors, Tom Cline and Leah Cohen, have stood out amongst their peers—far surpassing the expectations of contributing to the program laid upon them—for their time in the drama program. The program measures individuals work through something called “Tech Points.” The average student accumulates 500-600 in a semester. Cline already has 1,800 this semester, with Cohen close behind. In one semester of junior year, Cline and Cohen almost hit 6,000 combined.

The colossal amount of raw time that the pair have put in does not tell the whole story of their dedication to EPiC.

Even when they were sophomores in Intermediate Drama, the pair were already stage-managing Advanced Drama shows. Since entering Advanced Drama, Cline and Cohen have collaborated with each other in some way on every single play. Over the years, Cline and Cohen have become so connected that they sometimes don’t even need to speak to one another, instead using flamboyant hand gestures to signal when they want something.

Marilyn Izdebski, head of Marilyn Izdebski Productions, which puts on around eight to nine shows a year, has worked with Cline since 2009, when he was in eighth grade.

“He has a passion for really learning everything that he’s working on,” Izdebski said. “He’s learned everything that needed to be learned about lighting and stage managing and he just excels.”

During performance weeks, Cline starts his day as a member of Leadership at 7 a.m., and ends it by helping close down the Little Theater at around 11 p.m.. Despite this, Cline finds the time to be a salutatorian and a member of Mock Trial.

Behind the curtains, Cline is a master of his craft. Dressed in black garb from head to toe during performances, the lanky 6’2” backstage worker is able to command the respect of his peers in a way that would mystify some teachers. Anyone listening in on the tech crew’s radio channel during a performance will hear Tom demonstrating his prowess—directing the follow spots, informing the crew of changes and emergencies and giving commands. Cline is no stranger to the front side of the stage, however. He starred in EPiC’s production of Alice in Wonderland last year as the Duchess.

Before Cline had set a foot in the hallways of Redwood High School and enlisted in the Drama program, he had already been a stage manager for over 20 separate shows. Working with outside companies such as Marilyn Izdebski Productions and Marin Summer Theatre Company, Cline arrived at Redwood already more experienced than any other student. His love for stage-managing is evident in any of EPiC’s plays he’s stage-managed for. Cline plans to attend Oberlin College, where he’s hoping to major in Theater with a focus on Stage Management.

A similar story can be written for the energetic Leah Cohen, who counters Cline’s focused intensity with a bubbly personality. For any given show that EPiC produces, it would be a challenge to predict where she’ll be at any given moment. Cohen has worked almost every position possible, covering everything behind the curtain, from light designer to stage manager, and in front of the curtain, playing Alice in last year’s Alice in Wonderland, alongside Cline.

Besides spending the majority of her summer working for Marin Summer Theatre Company and driving up to Folsom during the school year to perfect the lights of an Advanced Drama play, Cohen also finds a way to act as a mother figure for the other students of EPiC.

“Leah is one of the most caring people that I have ever met,” said junior Abby Hanssen, a close co-worker and pupil of Cohen’s. “If you call her and you’re having a bad day, she will come over with Thin Mints and music and just talk about life with you.”

EPiC’s challenge will be identifying others to fill their shoes after graduation. Cline and Cohen have been working with juniors Aaron Cary, Abby Hanssen and Ann Slote. The need to train their successors weighs heavily on Cline and Cohen.

“Britt always says, ‘What do you want your legacy in EPiC to be?,’” Cline said. “Which is kind of a weird thought, but at the same time, a lot of what we’ve been thinking about is teaching the juniors everything that we know so that next year they’ll end up doing the same thing.”

Motherlode, running from April 9-10 and 23-24, will be the finale for this dynamic duo. As the lights dim and fade away for the last time this April, Cline and Cohen’s stellar careers will be complete.