Open Forum

A few years ago one of my seniors pulled me aside on the evening of our last performance of the year.  He asked if just the seniors and I could come back later and "say goodbye to the room".  Our auditorium is a very special place to all of us and they wanted to come back and spend some time on the stage, in the house, in the dressing rooms.  I prepared a special memento for each one of them, usually from one of their freshman or sophomore productions.  This became a special "secret" tradition each year.  I don't mention it until after that last performance.  Next year I will be retiring from the drama department that I have loved for so long.  It will be my turn to "say goodbye to the room".

We have "senior time" before the company dinner on closing night.  The entire company goes into the same room, and the adults leave.  The seniors have the run of the room for about 15 minutes.  They have the opportunity to tell the underclassmen what the theatre has meant to and done for them.  It is always an emotional time for them.  We actually had to move it earlier in our call times to give the kiddos time to recover and fix makeup etc. :)  It is important to me that it is students only--we have always striven to give our students ownership of the company, and this is another way that is reinforced.  They know that this is a time for them.

There is also a "secret" room in the theatre.  Not really a secret, but one of the rules is that you have to figure it out on your own.  I give the seniors in my program time to "find it" at the end of the year and after they do they mark it.  Handprints, signatures, pictures, drawings... whatever they decide to do.  The room is out of the way--off the normal routes through the theatre.