The theater department has a long running history of putting on great productions. The productions’ backbone comes from student direction, student acting, and student production.
All of these skills are taught in Westside’s own drama program.
Theater 1&2 are pre-requisit classes that teach the foundations of acting, history, and direction.
Theater 3, advanced acting, takes thing up a notch and students compete in NSAA One-act competition.
Theater 4 focuses on play production, this is where students learn to run the lights, sound, and develop costume designs. As well as design sets, this years students are starting to build stock set pieces for one-act competitions next year.
Theater 5, dramatic literature, is for those students that are interested in the scholarship of theater and playwriting. They compete in class by writing original one-act plays.
“My hope is that these classes will work together to allow kids to benefit from creative opportunities in each,” Said instructor Jeremy Stoll.
In Stoll’s first year he has added the technical program that includes set construction and scene art. Students for this program are from the art department and the engineering and technology department and he is looking to expand to other departments.
“Doing this has increased overall theater participation, particularly behind the scenes, and created a more comprehensive theater arts educational opportunity for kids.” Said Stoll.
Head Stage Manager, Lauren Akers, has been involved in 13 shows starting as a crew member and working her way up. She is in charge of overseeing the backstage side of things and running the communication to the lighting and sound booth during the shows, among many other things. Being on the technical theater side of the productions, she is excited about the direction that the program.
“He really cares about the students and I think that is the foundation for the department,” Akers said.
The theater departments next production is called Rumors, a comedy by Neil Simon, that will cast four males, four females, and three of either.
