Student Blog: Doing Theatre in a Sports-Focused School

Currently, I am the assistant stage manager for my high school's fall and spring productions, and trust me I wouldn't trade it for the world. It's my favorite thing ever and to be exaggeratingly honest I don't think I could live without it. I've made so many friends through it, and I absolutely love getting to watch the actors and crew put together an incredible show every day during rehearsal. The only downfall is my high school's main focus is sports.

 Don't get me wrong, it's amazing the things our sports teams can do here. Our football team won the Group 1 state title, and our soccer teams won their championships this fall. Rightfully so, they received many congrats in daily emails, multiple announcements, and from friends in the halls. Sometimes it feels as though our theatre department gets the exact opposite after completing a run of our show. We receive one announcement that only talks about the cast, leaving our techies underappreciated, and from then on no one really says anything more. 

Another benefit for the athletes in our school is that they have a choice to pick “option 2” each marking period, substituting their gym class. Option 2 just means a study hall where they can work on their homework and get tasks done due to their busy afterschool schedule with practices and games. Our theatre department has rehearsals that can end at so many different times, from 5 pm to 7 pm, and on tech week 9 pm or later. Some of my sports friends would respond with, “Wow, that's even longer than my practice!”. The theatre department requested the cast and crew receive option 2 for just tech week to help us maintain our workload, and yet it was denied. I assume there is a valid reason behind it, but that was unfortunately lost somewhere along the communication line. 

Despite all of the negatives, there is an upside. When it is time for our spring musical to open for an audience, it receives the attention of almost all of the town. We sell out almost the whole auditorium, and people of all ages come to see our show. It lands perfectly between the sports seasons, so there are no final games to attend or championships to go see. It feels rewarding to see a full house show up to watch our accomplishments. 

One of the coolest things about doing theatre in a sports-focused school is the experiences we get in the school once everyone goes home. The sports players go to a field or another district for their games, but our high school is the theatre home base. We can skip around, lay on the floor wherever we want, have dinner in the middle of the halls, and see places in the school a lot of people probably don't know exist. We have a cool loft with a spiral staircase, a fun hidden closet filled with costumes, and even a catwalk in the ceiling (which we unfortunately can't use).

Even though there are some negatives, I love my theatre experience and truly wouldn't trade it for the world.