:::: COVER FEATURE At-A-Glance | Theater Director Name: Stacy Michelle Walker Position: Drama teacher and director Education: MCHS alumna (2002); Palomar College Alumna (2007); B.A. in Theatre Arts and Feminist Studies, UC Santa Cruz (2010); M.A. in Performance Studies, NYU (2013) Community: Rancho Peñasquitos Interests: Hiking, camping, reading, singing, exploring
Q&A with Mt. Carmel High School Theater Director
Stacy Walker
Family: My parents, my brother, and I all still live in PQ – and my brand-new niece, Stella, is the latest of the PQ Walker family! Favorite Places in 92129: Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve, Black Mountain Open Space Park
What is the mission of the theater department at your school? Mt. Carmel High School’s (MCHS) Theatre at the Mount functions to bring high-quality theater to the students, staff, and community in and around Mt. Carmel. We aim to create opportunities for students to learn the art of stagecraft in all production areas – acting, directing, writing, designing, and more. We offer a variety of theatrical experiences and opportunities to our diverse student body.
What is your role as theater director? My job is to teach students why theater is special, what it can do, and how they can use the skills they learn in drama in their social, personal, and professional lives. Helping them find their voice, presence, and humanity through drama is nothing short of magical.
What is your professional background and what sparked your interest in working with high school students? In addition to being a proud PUSD graduate, I hold degrees in Theatre Arts and Feminist Studies from UC Santa Cruz as well as an M.A. in Performance Studies from NYU. For the past 15 years I have been privileged to participate in many aspects of the theater world, from the educational to the professional, specializing primarily as a director, stage manager, producer, and playwright. Since 2008 I’ve been running the theater program at Camp Tapawingo, a residential summer camp in Maine – producing plays and teaching classes to girls ages seven to 16. During the rest of the year, I would work for nonprofits, stage manage, etc., but in the past few years I realized that I’d been living my life for the summer – for the weeks that I spent teaching.
What has been the most rewarding part of your role in working with the theater department? Returning to the very same stage that inspired me! I was a Sundevil from 1998 to 2002 and fell in love with theater during my time here, learning from and working alongside my drama teacher, the incomparable Doug Smith, who later founded the theater company at Westview High School. My time at MCHS was instrumental in my development as a theater practitioner and maker. It’s an honor to be able to return to and cultivate a program that extends that gift to another generation of students.
What is the biggest challenge faced by your theater department? Honestly – finding the time to do everything we’d like to do! We have a very full season of plays, improv shows, festivals, and special events.
32 • 92129Magazine.com • October | November 2015