Every year a theater teacher from across the country is nominated for an award of excellence.
With the award, theater director Brooke Phillips’s program could be shown as prestigious and honorable.
There is a reward for this award which is $5,000. However, money is the least important reward because just being featured could be enough to promote any program to something greater. Phillips has been working towards bigger, more inclusive plays that could be featured.
“We just want to have fun with the program,” Phillips said. “We try to challenge ourselves by mixing up the types of plays. The theater scene is always changing and we are constantly changing and improving.”
Her theater program in recent years has been trying to incorporate students with disabilities and students in the main theater class to create an empowering experience.
“We have grown exponentially each year and we are trying to make our unified shows a regular occurrence,” Phillips said. “My thoughts about theater expectantly during high school, it’s an informative time, and people who want to express themselves through music, song, or dance should be given the opportunity.”
Over the years she has done many plays, but none of them have been as big as “Frozen” which first showed during the winter of 2023. This show has been the biggest unified show the theater program has ever produced.
“Frozen’ was a huge undertaking because not only is music kind of challenging but when we got the rights to ‘Frozen’ I wanted to make it Unified,” Phillps said. “We made magic on stand not only for the kids who got to perform on stage but the audience got to witness this pairing of students with disabilities. The community came together to help fund the musical which was just magical.”
With everything that Phillips has done for theater, many of the students in the theater classes have something to say about her.
“Phillips was the first person here who made me feel comfortable,” senior Allison Gardener said. ”She introduced me to the community which has been nice to me. She has been there for me in my rough moments. It is easy to compare myself to others but Phillps is very supportive.”
Some day, Phillips will pass down her position as director to someone in the program. Phillips has always valued expression and allowing others to express themselves is important.
“Phillips has always been there for me and my brother, she helped me to get into the theater program,” junior Natalie Kersten said. “Whenever I don’t feel good about myself she is there to lift me and to support me through whatever I’m going through.”
Phillips has yet to win the nomination however with a supportive attitude and one of the most technical performances in the school’s history. Winning at least a nomination would be the cherry on top of this spectacular year. From being a student here to the director of the theater program, maybe this will set a precedent for future directors here.
