{"id":1969,"date":"2022-05-03T00:47:43","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T00:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2021-2022\/?p=1969"},"modified":"2022-05-06T15:12:47","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T15:12:47","slug":"theatre-with-the-re","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2021-2022\/2022\/05\/03\/theatre-with-the-re\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatre, with the -re"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reflecting on the ACPS theatre department: past, present, and future.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Yahney-Marie Sangar\u00e9<\/p>Editor<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The curtains are drawn and the house lights are flickering. The crowd\u2019s whispers descend into silence. The music rises, and the scene is unveiled; in the auditoriums of George Washington Middle School, Francis C. Hammond, and Alexandria City High School, a new world takes precedence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheatre, like any artform, gives the creator and the audience a profound way of looking deeply into the nature of what it means to be human,\u201d said drama teacher Robert McDonough. As the department rebuilds and regrows after two years of the pandemic, we take a look into the theatre departments of George Washington, Hammond, and ACHS and the students that participate in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Washington Middle School: <\/strong>Mr. Robert McDonough<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The cast of Great Expectations<\/em> (2019) gathers under the proscenium onstage during rehearsal. Robert McDonough sits in the bottom left in the house of the theatre. Photo credit: Yahney-Marie Sangar\u00e9 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Robert McDonough is a graduate of Harvard’s Institute for Advanced Theatre Training. After an eclectic entertainment career, including being an actor, director, and theatre founder in Chicago at the Greasy Joan & Company<\/em>, a professor at the University of Memphis, and working for Who Wants to be a Millionaire<\/em>, he came back to Alexandria, where he was informed that there was an open position as a drama teacher for George Washington Middle School (GWMS). He started teaching at GWMS in Autumn 2007 and \u201chasn\u2019t looked back since.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At George Washington, drama classes are open to all grade levels. There is \u201ca lot of reading\u201d from \u201cplays that are simple and charming like Ms. Nelson is Missing<\/em> to many different texts from Shakespeare\u2019s canon.\u201d Sixth graders start off with fundamentals, history, and writing, and by the time they are in eighth grade, they will have not only had the chance to participate in the extracurricular shows, which annually vary between plays and musicals, but potentially the opportunity to participate in the Text Alive!<\/em> Shakespeare Theatre Program<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cOur program is rooted in creating theatre, not just studying it,\u201d said McDonough. \u201cLike any artform, it is our philosophy that to understand, to learn, to appreciate it, we have to create it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In keeping with the tradition of creation, students are not restricted to acting. Not only do students learn costume and light design, but in school-wide productions, they are often thrust into tech roles; sixth through eighth-graders take on the task of lightboard operation, stage management, and running crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe interesting thing is the challenges of putting on a production are the same whether you\u2019re working with members of the union on a professional level or middle schoolers who can\u2019t remember their last name,\u201d said McDonough. \u201cAre there frustrations, obstacles, conflict? Of course. There\u2019s institutional difficulties to overcome, but the cool thing about being in theatre is you\u2019re always adapting. You never get what you want, but you work with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Theseus and the Minotaur battle in a 2017 version of Myth Adventures<\/em>. The dark stage is illuminated in the center, where the audience is seated around a circle of white LED strips. Both hold a staff. Photo used with permission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of the various productions that have taken place in George Washington\u2019s historic auditorium, McDonough recalls Hairspray<\/em> as having a \u201creally meaningful\u201d effect on the school\u2019s community. He also mentions the first production they put on at the school, Myth Adventures<\/em>, which then received a winter readaptation in 2017. Other recent productions include 2018\u2019s High School Musical<\/em>, 2019\u2019s Great Expectations<\/em>, where middle school students took on Charles Dickens\u2019s iconic story of love and loss, and 2020\u2019s Frozen Junior<\/em>, which was interrupted the week before its impending performance by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[COVID-19] hasn\u2019t changed the basic structure of the program, but when we were in the virtual world it created production challenges and certainly made the experience of teaching and learning sometimes strange and sometimes wonderful,\u201d explained McDonough. \u201cIt is an understatement to state that we are eager and hungry to return to our usual production schedule next school year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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McDonough and members of the cast discuss onstage in February 2020, just a month before Frozen Jr. <\/em>would be canceled due to the pandemic. Photo credit: Yahney-Marie Sangar\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Students who matriculate through GWMS\u2019s theatre program, especially those involved extracurricularly, often go on to high school theatre. Throughout fifteen years in the department, McDonough has done a variety of productions worked to have students understand such stories as Romeo and Juliet<\/em>. However, McDonough\u2019s most memorable production took place only two years into teaching, when he wrote and produced The Walking Boys <\/em>with his friend Salva Dut, a member of the Dinka, part of the Nilotic Ethnic Group in South Sudan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a story about his 800-mile journey across the Sudanese wilderness, fleeing his war torn country. Teaching the kids [this show] at GWMS was a remarkable learning experience for all of us which culminated in the first production of the play which has been read and produced in middle schools throughout the country,\u201d said McDonough. \u201cI remember I saw first production outside of our school of [The Walking Boys<\/em>] in Jackson, Mississippi soon afterwards, and I was amazed by the manner in which other young people from another part of the country can take the same story and develop such a compelling performance. It taught me that middle school kids have an enormous capacity for empathy and love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francis C. Hammond Middle School<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Students in the 2019 production of Mulan <\/em>onstage. The lighting is purple, and a young man in a samurai uniform communes with four others, with a head poking out of someone in a dragon costume. Photo credit: Yahney-Marie Sangar\u00e9 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Aaron Jackson is a graduate of Speech Communications and Theater Arts at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. His background in theatre \u201cwas strictly on the acting technique side.\u201d He studied theatre at New York University and Second City in Chicago, Illinois. Unexpectedly, he was not involved in productions in high school but \u201ctook a drama class and loved it.\u201d After a mentor in university compelled him to pursue theatre, when he was originally on an education track, he, too, \u201cnever looked back.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally, Jackson worked with elementary and high school students. He began teaching at Francis C. Hammond five years ago, where the first production was The Wiz<\/em>, which \u201cwent so well that we had to add a show.\u201d Of course, there were challenges transitioning from professional and youth theatre to middle-grade; for the show, it was sound, lights, and crowd adaptation, and for Jackson, it concerned teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The cast of Mulan <\/em>gathers onstage for curtain call in June 2019. Photo credit: Yahney-Marie Sangar\u00e9 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was different at first working with the students at Hammond because the way the classes are designed the students don\u2019t really get to pick a field of choice,\u201d said Jackson. \u201cI had a class split with students who did not want to be in theatre and some who love it. I had to start teaching in the middle to accommodate both groups. The after-school program helped for students who were above average in the field.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson cited support from the administration as being crucial to the department\u2019s success. \u201cMy principal is so important to the overall success of our program,\u201d he said. \u201cShe just loves our kids so much. Anything she can do to make our lives easier, she makes it happen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hammond\u2019s theatre classes focus on \u201cacting technique, improvisation, and script writing.\u201d He provides a foundation for students to build on if they continue their theatrical experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandria City High School<\/strong>: Ms. Leslie Jones and Mrs. Hope Bachman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stuart Conrad, playing Seymour Krelborn in Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>, sits on the stairs of the shop as the plant’s mouth gapes open behind him. The puppet, made by Tanween Syed, KD Bectel, and Ella Bruinooge with help from the rest of the stage crew, weighed over 50 pounds and required three people to operate throughout the run of the show. Photo credit: Yahney-Marie Sangar\u00e9 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hope Bachman attended Francis C. Hammond Middle School and T.C. Williams High School, where she learned under the drama teacher, Karen Master. She became heavily involved in theatre after \u201cswapping\u201d band for theatre in her freshman year due to her enjoyment of an eighth-grade showcase, although she recalls that her passion for theatre began \u201cwhen [she] was too young to really name it.\u201d She began teaching at T.C. Williams in the autumn of 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had a moment where theatrical design felt like a good fit, but in education, you get to do it all,\u201d she said on why she chose to teach drama, \u201cYou get to do some acting, plenty of directing, design, you get to help with the build. You may get to write things. There is no part of theatre that I don\u2019t occasionally get to touch. There\u2019s no one part that I love more than another, so this is, in many ways, the perfect fit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leslie Jones grew up in a family of diverse interests. With her father being a \u201csports freak\u201d and her mother always taking her and her siblings to the movies, she was both an avid listener of rock-and-roll, Motown soul, and country, a flutist in the marching and concert band, a cheerleader, a runner, and, of course, a thespian. \u201cGrowing up, I was always in both worlds,\u201d she said. Jones was introduced to theatre through school and church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew I was going to major in theatre when I went to college at Penn State for undergrad, and then Brooklyn College for graduate school. I didn\u2019t want to be a teacher, so 31 years later, people look at me like I\u2019m crazy,\u201d Jones admitted. \u201cI went back to school after joining the program Teach For America<\/em>. I\u2019m in the second corps, starting in the second core in 1991, moving to Los Angeles to do my teaching gig there. I lived in LA for 8 years and then moved to Virginia, where I\u2019m finishing my 18th year producing at ACHS.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bachman and Jones work as a partnership in both teaching the drama classes and directing and producing plays at ACHS. \u201cJones and I started working as a partnership in 2004-2005, which has been such a blessing. We challenge each other in good ways; our strengths complement each other. We each bring a perspective that helps each other and the department continue to grow,\u201d said Bachman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The partnership is necessary; the department rarely has a minute to spare. In a typical year, there is a fall play, a Winter One Acts Festival, a Spring Musical, and a Writer\u2019s Festival workshop. With so many productions, students tackle a large variety of forms of drama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Devonte Mitchell and Jeneya Kamara in Facing Our Truth<\/em>. The play, No More Monsters Here<\/em>, centers around the perception of Black men as dangerous and the cycles of oppression faced by African Americans. Photo used with permission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would like to think that what we show the community is that we can strike a balance between just having fun and using this art form to educate. Jones has tackled the heavy stuff, because that\u2019s her thing\u2026Being able to tackle those issues through theatre is very rewarding but does need to be held in balance with things that are just about joy or silliness or that kind of stuff. I think we can provide that balance; show both sides of what theatre can be,\u201d said Bachman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really thank our school system for being receptive and open, even if everyone doesn\u2019t agree–because there are people out there who don\u2019t agree with some of the plays I direct–at least they don\u2019t try to stop it. They make sure all of the students in our building get the chance to experience all different types of theatre,\u201d said Jones, who has directed such plays as The Laramie Project <\/em>and Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Seniors Stuart Conrad (Seymour) and De Angelo Palucho (Mr. Mushnik) perform in Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>. Palucho places a hand on Conrad\u2019s shoulder as they stand outside the shop. Photo credit: Yahney-Marie Sangar\u00e9. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jones and Bachman have put on many plays over the years, but a few stand out. Bachman, while insisting on the difficulty to pick, described the 2012 production of Crazy For You<\/em>. \u201cPart of the setting is this sort of Western ghost town, where they\u2019re trying to save the town by having an attraction there. One of the things the cowboys and residents try is to have a staged barfight, so trying to choreograph 30 actors into this melee onstage was a lot of fun. It was chaos, but everybody had such a good time doing it. It was just such a cheerful kind of thing. To the best of my recollection, no one ever got actually hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy favorite moments are always when something happens in a performance that the audience really responds to. That audience\/performance synergy is clear and you can tell the audience is responding to the actors, and the actors are feeling it. When that happens, it\u2019s magic. It\u2019s why I prefer live theatre to other forms of dramatic performance. You can get goosebumps from something that happens in a movie, but it\u2019s not reciprocal,\u201d said Bachman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Senior Erin Burns plays Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>. Enveloped in a pink spotlight, a warm white dot of luminescence brightens her face as the character wears a leopard-print makeshift cast and a black eye. Photo credit: Yahney-Marie Sangar\u00e9. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition to directing a variety of plays and musicals at ACHS, Bachman wrote The Brick Joke<\/em>, a play directed and performed by students in 2020 for the Winter One Acts Festival. \u201cThat whole experience in writing a play that wasn\u2019t specifically written for student actors but having students respond to the story and choosing to take on challenging roles as adults dealing with adult marriages, relationship issues and be awarded for it was really, really cool. Those actors showed such maturity and were willing to talk about the themes in what I wrote, and it kind of proved to me that I had something there as a writer, that there was enough in the script that even high schoolers who didn\u2019t necessarily have the lived experience could still identify with some of the emotions and things that the characters were going through.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jones brought up several examples, including The Wiz<\/em>, Chicago<\/em>, Dreamgirls<\/em>, and Romeo and Juliet<\/em>. She talked about Noises Off<\/em> and Twilight Los Angeles 1992<\/em>, which she called the \u201caura\u201d of \u201cunbelievable\u201d, and The Laramie Project<\/em>. \u201cIf we centered theatre on one culture, it would be slapping the face of the students in our school. If we\u2019re not trying to involve as many people as possible, what are we doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also mentioned the recent production of Facing Our Truth<\/em>. \u201cI cannot express my gratitude towards the cast, crew, leadership, the parents, faculty; everyone who was involved with Facing Our Truth<\/em>: the superintendent, central office, everyone. They were absolutely beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Naeem Scott, playing crazed dentist Orin Scravello, is surrounded by Jayden Benitez, Sarah McMahon, Sydney Payne, and Maria McLemore, playing \u2018urchins\u2019, during Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>. Photo credit: Yahney-Marie Sangar\u00e9. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning from the pandemic, ACHS\u2019s theatre department is in a state of constant rebuilding. Bachman described how the time lost robbed the opportunity of seeing \u201ccontinual, uninterrupted growth\u201d, an experience echoed throughout all classrooms and departments but especially grave in theatre. \u201cYou have to, as an actor, trust your directors with big emotions, sometimes those big emotions touch on actual things going on in their lives and there\u2019s a lot of trust built there. The pandemic disrupted that process of building a relationship and trust,\u201d explained Bachman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sentiment is echoed by Jones: \u201cI try to be an actor’s type of director,\u201d she said. \u201cI try to empathize and sympathize\u2026be the type of director that students can come to when they\u2019re having issues. Especially learning lines-learning lines is the worst thing for me! As a teacher, you know students who are having a hard time versus students who just didn\u2019t put in the work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, returning from two tumultuous years has brought about a change that may otherwise have not occurred. \u201cI think everyone has appreciation for what they missed and has come in with so much enthusiasm this year in part because none of us are taking the experience for granted in a way that we might have two years ago,\u201d said Bachman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rachel Ross, playing George Zimmerman in The Ballad of Trayvon Martin<\/em>, sits resolutely on a chair as Jei Huddle, playing a police officer, delivers a monologue behind her. Photo used with permission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the 23 years that I\u2019ve been here, I\u2019ve seen the highs and lows of the student body, which is probably what happened with students around the country. This last six years or so, the kids in the school have been relentless. They\u2019ve started talking to students outside of their comfort zone to get them to see the plight of the injustices going on within our school. Students who were not aware are becoming aware, saying, \u2018Hey, I want to be an ally, an agitator, help you to get things to change for the better for all of us.\u2019,\u201d said Jones. \u201cI\u2019m sitting here looking at the student body doing this and thinking, \u2018If the student body can do this, why can\u2019t the faculty?\u2019 That\u2019s when my social justice awareness peaked to its highest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jones helps coordinate the collaboration between Black Student Union\u2019s Black History Month celebration and the theatre department. This year, she said \u201ceverything came together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, after over a decade of teaching, there are notable stories. \u201cWe\u2019ve got several graduates who are making a go of it professionally in theatre or music. They occasionally come back, usually with positives and thank yous for what they learned here. Very few students are going to be able to leave high school theatre and go straight to professional acting without some additional training and life experience in the meantime, but every student who has gone that direction seems to feel like we\u2019ve given them a really good foundation. Maybe we didn\u2019t cover everything we needed, but we gave them a good solid basis to build on,\u201d said Bachman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ACHS theatre department has bright horizons. \u201cI want to make sure that students are getting opportunities that they desire. I think we\u2019ve got a good balance. I think with some changes to some of our outside support structures, more might be possible, but there needs to be some structural changes before that is possible,\u201d said Bachman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to partner with the theatre community more. Ms. Bachman and I are looking forward to partnering more with our colleagues on the middle school level, as well as the Alexandria community and theatre communities beyond Alexandria because we both have contacts. We\u2019re looking forward to that next chapter in our theatre department,\u201d said Jones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Students<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A crowd sits in the auditorium, watching Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>. Photo credit: Yahney-Marie Sangar\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Theatre brings in all types of people. Whether students have been stage managing since sixth grade or decided to take drama on a whim their junior year, there\u2019s a place for them in the department. Everyone has a different reason for participating, but it all comes back to one thing: community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheatre has given me the space to be unauthentically myself, I can act as silly and weird as I like because at the end of the day people are so non judgemental and accepting. The community I’ve gained through theatre is something I will always appreciate,\u201d said senior Sylvia Rahim. Rahim joined the theatre department through Winter One Acts as a sophomore, also taking Introduction to Theatre, and has since been in both Facing Our Truth<\/em> and Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>, alongside co-directing the one act Governing Alice<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Urchins (Sylvia Rahim, Mariel Carr, Maria McLemore, Sydney Payne, Jayden Benitez, Sarah McMahon) surround the Dentist (Naeem Scott) in Little Shop of Horrors<\/em> as Seymour (Stuart Conrad) nervously paces the shop. Photo credit: Yahney-Marie Sangar\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe core of theatre is to bring about entertainment. When I\u2019m on stage and I play a powerful force, musical or not, I put myself in the character’s shoes and I become them. For me, it\u2019s about escapism,\u201d said Junior Naeem Scott. Scott is a student in the Advanced Theatre class and was involved with Winter One Acts and Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheatre has opened me to a world of camaraderie. I have met so many amazing people who have helped me learn to be a better person and have taught me a multitude of extremely random things,\u201d said junior Jeffrey Brenchley. Brenchley did theatre at GWMS (King Midas, King Minos, Abel Magwtich). He also does theatre at the Little Theatre of Alexandria for almost five years, with four of those years focusing on improvisation. He directed two one acts plays in 2021 and 2022 and currently is playing the titular character in the Advanced Drama Class\u2019s production of King Lear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was a pretty shy kid before I started taking acting classes at ACHS and I never imagined myself standing in front of an auditorium full of people. Theatre got me out of my comfort zone socially,\u201d said junior Jeneya Kamara, who has been taking drama since freshman year and began to participate in ACHS productions in 2021, being involved in Facing Our Truth<\/em>, Winter One Acts, and Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sophomores KD Bectel and Tanween Syed work on constructing the Audrey 2 puppet for Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>. Photo Credit: Yahney-Marie Sangar\u00e9.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For those who choose to work offstage, theatre still provides respite and opportunity. Alongside the drama, ACHS offers stagecraft classes that work on everything from design to construction. The plays and musicals at ACHS are also unique in that they are partially student-directed, with construction and stage management also conducted by the students under the guidance of Jones or Bachman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sophomore Ilona Boehm O\u2019Connor operates the soundboard for Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>. The light board, spotlight, and running crew for shows at ACHS is almost entirely student-run. Photo credit: Yahney-Marie Sangar\u00e9.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur theatre department is great at attempting to include people new to theatre. No matter their sex, gender, or race they’re welcomed,\u201d said sophomore Tanween Syed, who worked on set-building and stage crew for Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>, the Winter One Acts Festival, and Facing Our Truth<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnyone can give theatre a try and if you have even the slightest desire to, go for it. You won’t regret it,\u201d said sophomore Maikol Centeno. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m a part of tech crew. I am a lighting designer, and light board operator. My job consists of not only designing the look of the show, but the setup for it as well, with light maps and positioning on catwalks and rows of lights,\u201d said sophomore Jesse Jones. Jones, coming from doing acting, adapted into the technical role, \u201cI really was on a path to do nothing tangible with my life, but technical theatre just picked me up and made me want to actually be something. I got my GPA up, started actually considering college, all over some musical theatre stuff. It’s kind of embarrassing that the thing that actually made me think about my life past sixteen was musicals but whatever works I guess!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sophomore Jei Huddle, who acted in the fall play, runs spotlight for Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>. Photo credit: Yahney-Marie Sangar\u00e9 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/em>Senior Stuart Conrad, who recently played the lead role of Seymour Krelborn in Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>, has been in 22 productions throughout his eighteen years. At ACHS, alongside Seymour, he has been involved since ninth grade, including Beauty and the Beast<\/em> (Beast\u2019s Guard) and (for 2022 Winter One Acts) The Baloney, the Pickle, the Zombies, and Other Things I Hide from My Mother <\/em>(The Baloney). \u201cTheatre is one of the many activities I’m involved in here at ACHS…but I’d say it’s certainly one of my favorites. During the quarantine school year of 2020-2021, I was unable to do any theatre…or really any activity of any kind outside of a select virtual few. In that time, a realized how much I adored theatre,\u201d he said, \u201cIt’s a creative outlet, a place where you can play any character you want and maybe learn something about yourself in the process. While I wouldn’t exactly completely describe myself as a “Theatre Kid” I would say the art form is very near and dear to my heart and definitely something I plan to pursue in the future.\u201d Conrad also stressed the importance of integrating the arts with STEM, \u201cThey call it STEAM for a reason: We need the arts to differentiate us from the robots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Junior Naeem Scott (Wilson) and senior Fiona Stevens (Phoebe) act in Someday<\/em>, one of the four plays presented at the school\u2019s Winter One Acts Festival. Photo used with permission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Senior Preston Goodin has been involved in theatre since going to middle school at GWMS, where he played Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet and Coach Bolton in High School Musical. He directed the fall play, Facing Our Truth<\/em>, and has also participated on tech in other productions. \u201cSome of the greatest days of my life have been opening and closing nights. Seeing the culmination of months of work from dozens of people is such a raw experience that you can\u2019t really find anywhere else. I owe a lot of myself to theatre and the people I\u2019ve met through it. So if you have any semblance of an urge to join, I highly recommend you do. Don\u2019t let other people\u2019s opinions or your own self-consciousness stop you. I promise everyone in that department wants to meet new people and will gladly help you get to the spot you want to be at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transparency<\/em><\/strong>: Sangar\u00e9 has been involved in the theatre department since sixth grade. She was involved in the following mentioned shows: Myth Adventures (2017), Great Expectations (2019), Frozen Jr. (2020), Facing Our Truth (2021), Winter One Acts (2022), and Little Shop of Horrors (2022). All quotes used here are from interviews conducted by <\/em>Theogony.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The curtains are drawn and the house lights are flickering. The crowd\u2019s whispers descend into silence. The music rises, and the scene is unveiled; in the auditoriums of George Washington Middle School, Francis C. Hammond, and Alexandria City High School, a new world takes precedence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[129,7],"tags":[31,32,607,606],"class_list":["post-1969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider","category-style","tag-achs","tag-alexandria-city-high-school","tag-arts","tag-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2021-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2021-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2021-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2021-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2021-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1969"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2021-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2011,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2021-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1969\/revisions\/2011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2021-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2021-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2021-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2021-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}