Student Blog: Creating Traditions From Scratch

Sometimes the challenge in theater isn't to keep traditions alive but to create new ones for years to come. When I started as a freshman in high school, my school was brand new. This meant everything was beautiful, shiny, and new, but also meant that there were no longstanding school traditions. No clubs existed, no yearly dances, no school chants, nothing. As the first class at this school, we were entrusted with the responsibility of creating all the traditions for future students to follow. Coming into high school, I knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of the drama club. As the social media manager and eventual president of the club, I felt a great responsibility to make this brand-new theatre program one where everyone felt like they were part of a family. In doing so, many traditions were established. 

While some traditions were thoroughly thought through and planned, others blossomed from regular tasks we had to do to put on a show. I vividly remember loving the dinners we had during tech week. Each night of tech, parents would arrange for local restaurants to cater our tech week dinners. We would finish running the show and come to the school's lobby, where they had set up tables filled with food. We lined up, loaded our plates with pastas, salads, subs, or pizza, and sat on the biggest set of indoor stairs imaginable as we absolutely devoured our dinner before cleaning up and running the show again. I remember the laughs and jokes shared over the things that went wrong during our latest run, or the compliments flying around because someone did something incredible. There was so much joy and energy in that space, and I loved every part of it.

Another tradition that I enjoyed was writing notes to all of my castmates. In my junior year, we did a production of Funny Girl, where I had the incredible opportunity to play Fanny Brice. I was so honored to have that role, and I wanted to do something special for my castmates. I thought back on how much I had admired the older students who played lead roles or held leadership positions before me. I remembered how nice it was when something I would do went noticed by someone I looked up to, and so I decided to write everyone happy opening night notes. I had taken a little time each day over tech week to write every cast member a personalized note wishing them luck and reminding them of how talented they were, how much they contributed to the show, and how deeply valued they were, not just in the show but in the drama club as a whole. 

Establishing senior traditions at my school was especially fun. When I stepped into the role of president of the drama club as a senior, I headed up a senior-only performance during our end-of-the-year cabaret. Acting and tech seniors all sang “When I Grow Up” from Matilda, while a slideshow of our baby pictures and pictures from shows at the school was projected behind us. It was great to see the tech seniors perform onstage, and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house, especially not from the parents! I was so happy that all the seniors from both on and offstage, came together for one final performance.

Of all of the traditions we started at my new high school, my favorite has to be the beginning of our feeder school performances. In my senior year, we performed Mary Poppins, and it seemed like a fun idea to invite all the elementary and middle school students from the schools that fed into our high school to watch it on a school day between show weeks. They walked from the middle school and arrived by bus from the elementary schools, and we greeted them at the door in character and costume. We performed the entire show for them, and after the show, we had a talk-back and Q&A with the cast. Then we took them in groups backstage and even showed them how I did some of my Mary Poppins magic during the show. They got to walk on our two-level set and even play with some chimney sweep brooms. It was truly incredible because these are the kind of opportunities that all children should have access to, and I hope that we were able to inspire at least one of them to love theatre as much as I do.

I truly hope that these traditions I love so much will continue for many years. I realize now how lucky I was to grow up in a community so invested in supporting the arts, and that support shows with the number of passionate and talented kids I see performing in my hometown. I am forever grateful for the teachers, parents, and volunteers who make it their mission for school and community theatre to be such a special place for students, and I hope the traditions I helped to create will have that same positive impact on future theatre generations to come.