​P O U D R E T H E A T R E

I am a very proud thespian who has been a part of several shows here at Poudre, and a few outside of Poudre. I have acted and costumed. I find it really important to connect with everyone in the department, even if they have a different role in the production. I find a lot of joy in theatre and the arts, and really appreciate it as a collaborative platform where we can all work together towards a really stunning show. Outside of theatre I really enjoy climbing, as well as medicine and biology.

I played Cello for eight years when I was younger, and was always involved in many sorts of orchestras and performance groups. One example of leadership that I have undertaken was the section leader of the advanced chamber orchestra that I played in. Being a section leader is an interesting from of leadership as it is largely nonverbal. The requirements to be a good section leader are to really establish a close and friendly relationship with the rest of your section. This is really important because the relationship between yourself and your section needs to be full of trust. You need to trust that you will all be able to perform at a high level and rely on each other to know your music. The rest of the section relied on me to communicate the directions given by the conductor in my body movements and to communicate with the other section leaders and the rest of the orchestra. This relied on my ability to be focused and attentive. This ability is directly applicable to my involvement in Drama Club. By having the experience on how to work with other leaders and relay the information coming from a primary source of direction, I believe that I will make for an effective officer, that is able to work as both a leader and follower.

My goals for drama club this coming year would be to increase the amount of meaningful workshops and activities, and minimize wasted, idle time. In relation to the workshops that we would be doing I would like to implement workshops relating to all aspects of theatre, having an equal balance between technical, costuming, and acting workshops. I would like to increase the importance and participation of things like Theatre in the classroom, Too much Light, and add similar opportunities for technicians to have a relatively low stress environment to show off their work by doing some activity such as an exhibition of set design ideas, costume designs or creative, theatre related portfolios. One of my main goals would be to increase the significance and attendance of drama club, not by making it mandatory to come to every meeting, but rather by making every meeting interesting, engaging, and ensuring that there is something for everyone to do. I would like to bring the Drama Club community together, because while I feel we are all friendly to one another, I still feel a sense of division.

I have been an avid member of drama club since Freshman theatre camp the summer before my Freshman year. I have also been a member of all theatre productions, whether that be the cast, or costuming, and because of this, I have really formed an appreciation for theatre as a whole. Recently, I have perfected my leadership skills in ambassadors, as well as Student Council before the merge, and there I learned how to be professional, while also approachable, and I think these skills translate to a leadership position in theatre as well. I want to be a member of the officer team so that I grow my leadership skills, and deepen my appreciation for theatre. 

I have held leadership roles in lots of positions, even since 6th grade. I was in student leadership at CLP, learning what a leader is, and how I can have an impact on a school. From there, I applied for Student Council, and after two years, learned the value of care and passion in leadership. After that, I joined Ambassadors, where I learned that a leader should be professional and approachable, and then began teaching piano lessons, where I learned how important it is to teach, not show. All of these have helped me grow as a leader that is not only compassionate, but professional, personal, and empathetic.

​My vision for Drama Club next year is unique. I want the drama club to be much more collaborative, and have a role in creating stronger bonds and connections between actors, technicians, and customers. I believe a theatre production is built on trust, and trust comes from relationships and friendships. My vision for the Club next year is to build on the already great relationships in the club, and create more collaboration across the fields of theatre. This can be in the form of student-led workshops, or having time to discuss and coordinate plans for a production between the actors, techies, and customers. 

I have been involved in Poudre Theatre for all of the mainstage productions performed since my freshman year. I have done mostly costuming, but recently have been branching out into other areas of technical theatre including lighting, set construction, and as of recently, stage managing. I am very interested in pursuing more areas of technical theatre next year and learning more about sound design and props as well as expanding on my knowledge in the areas I’ve worked in before

In the past I have participated in our shows as a costume team leader. One reason I believe the role suits me is because I so enjoy working with others to be able to teach my teammates the skills needed to complete the required tasks. I am a very extroverted person which means that I have no problem talking with members of my team about what needs to be done and how it has to be completed. I also have no issue with keeping people on task. I value having a balance of work and fun and have learned a lot about maintaining that balance. As a drama club officer, I would use this skill when considering the types of workshops we participate in and try to organize workshops that are educational and that expose members to many different aspects of theatre while making it enjoyable

Another leadership quality I possess is the ability to be a good communicator. I am good at organizing my thoughts and effectively relaying them by word or on paper. As an officer, this would be good during meetings when I need to relay information to the whole club in addition to when I may need to get information out to a smaller group of people I am working with on a smaller production or event.

I am also an effective problem solver when quick changes need to be made. With the constant changes going on in IB and other areas of the school that move around drama club events, I believe and officer should be quick to adapt to those changes and have an idea of the process needed to make them. I would be a good officer because I possess all of the qualities previously mentioned and also because i am passionate about Poudre Theatre and want to do as much as I can to grow our community and opportunities.

​I have so many ideas as to what we can do with the club next year. To start, I want to expand the workshops we have the opportunity to participate in. I think that it would be a wonderful idea to alternate acting, dance, technical, and costume workshops that are simple enough to be done in the allotted time, but still educational. It would be fun to do things like little lessons on hand sewing where the members can get into groups and learn how to do simple stitches from a costumer in each group. For a tech workshop, members could learn about gels and make their own magic sheets for a show of their choice. We could also learn dances from state and practice improv or acting skills in small groups. I also want to work on refining the schedule and finding an organized way to relay what each drama club is going to entail and who it may apply to most. Additionally, it would be effective to find a way to post that to the call board as well as relaying it through teams. Something else I want to work on is getting more theatre professionals to speak at drama club meetings every once in a while. I know that when we had Ted Stark come, there were many people who loved getting to ask questions and see how someone can build a theatrical career. 

I have been a student of theatre for about eight years now, working as a performer for most of the time. However, since coming to Poudre, I have been able to widen my lens and try new positions when it comes to performing arts. For example, I have learned a lot from my recent theatre classes and from working on the costuming crew. Trying new things in these roles has allowed me to build more connections with my fellow troupe members, which I am thankful for. This year, I have been working on becoming more of a leader in the theatre program, whether that be in drama club, as a performer, or as an Assistant Director. I've really enjoyed the opportunities I have had to improve my leadership skills in theatre, and I hope to continue as a drama club officer. 

Recently, I have had the privilege of being the assistant director for a production here. I really enjoyed this position for many reasons, but mostly because it allowed me to build stronger connections with members of the company. This experience led me to realize why I enjoy leadership so much - because it allows me to help people and bond with them. This is one quality I believe makes me an effective leader - my compassion. My favorite part of assistant directing was supporting the cast with encouragement and notes so that they could perform the best they could. Another trait I hold that helps me with leadership is organization. As I said before, I loved using this skill to help the cast - whether it was with staging, notes, etc. Lastly, I think I am a strong leader because I am assertive and I can make effective decisions. I can solve problems easily, allowing me to better support people. I hope to use these traits as an officer - by caring and listening to club members, keeping the activities organized, and by effectively making decisions for the good of the troupe. I believe I will be a good officer because I care deeply about this club and every single person in it, and I hope to use my skills to help them in this position. 

​When it comes to ideas for this club, I have many. Firstly, I would like to incorporate more experiences during drama club that allow us to come together as a community. I really enjoy activities where I can get to know those I haven’t before, or support my fellow members. For example, one of my favorite things we have done in drama club was the activity with sticky notes where we complimented each other. It made me feel supported, and I was happy to pass on that compassion. Sincerely, the reason I love theatre so much is because of our community, and I think we could do more to support and show kindness to one another. My second idea is to help create more funds for this club. I believe that all of us deserve to have many opportunities to explore and create theatre, and I would like to raise funds to support those endeavors. For my personal project a year ago, I planned a fundraiser for this club and raised money for our members to go to nationals. I hope to incorporate something similar in the coming year, so that we can all experience new things and have more opportunities. It will take a lot of work, as all events do, but I am committed to helping each and every one of you by raising those funds. 

I have been involved in every single MainStage show here at Poudre, and have been involved in the technical, costuming, and performance elements at least once. I believe that I have been a very supportive and active member of the Poudre theatre community. I have not missed a single Drama Club meeting unless I fell ill or had a family planned event pull me away. Overall, I am exited, officer or not, to be a big part of Poudre theatre next year, specifically Drama Club.

I have been in a leadership role many times, possibly the most notable role was being an officer in the brand new Student Leadership. Some of the most effective qualities that I have had is my fantastic listening. In a room where so many people are always wanting to speak their mind, I have been a great listener, and even when I don't necessarily approve of what the others are saying, I still sit and listen to their ideas. By bringing my acute sense of listening to Drama Club and the International Thespian Society, I would hope to be an officer that would work to hear both the positive and negative feedback, and utilize that to keep what many loved as a foundation for new elements that we can create, while working to fix the elements that are not working. I believe that that could make me a pretty good officer. I believe that simply by listening, sometimes that is all people need to feel better, and as a club that should be our main priority. Feel better. There are a lot of things that go on for high schoolers, and I think that by having a safe haven where club members can detox and have fun at the beginning of every week has the possibility to create tremendous positive impacts on the school as a whole.

​One of my biggest dreams/visions for Drama Club would be to make Theatre in the Classroom a "exclusive event" for freshmen only. This would help freshmen foster a connection with each other, and make the event a small event that each freshmen will hopefully want to do. This will hopefully start to end all of the negative energy surrounding the event, and add a little more draw to to the event. By creating an event that is "exclusive" to freshmen, officers could target freshmen that seemed to be less included in the club, and give them an event that will be created specifically for people like them.

I am a thespian with troupe 2808. I enjoy music, making new friends, and walking my dog. I am currently in the MYP program 

One leadership role I have held is when I was team captain in volleyball. My job was to keep the team spirit high and make sure everyone was working their hardest, together. I think theatre is very much like this because we all have different responsibilities (like in volleyball you have a setter, hitter, pipe, etc) but we all work to build each other up. Everyone does their job, whether it be designing, sewing, building, acting, we all come together to create one piece of art. As a leader, communication and a positive attitude is key and, as an officer, I would bring these skills to drama club to listen to the concerns of the members and find a way to keep working towards our goals, together.

​I hope to reach out to more people and show them our wonderful work! I feel that a lot of kids at Poudre don't know much about all of what we do and think a lot of them might actually be interested in certain things we have to offer like construction, costume design, film, script writing, working with lights, sound, and more. One way to do this is to advertise our club to classes or possibly offer different theatre workshops or shows during advisory FLO. A personal idea I think would be cool is if we would be if we could get student written scripts and have our committed drama club members act them out or create deigns for the script. Another thing I hope we can work on in Drama Club next year is having more activities that include everyone. I feel like this year we did a better job a creating fun workshops that were helpful and informative on a lot of different things like writing, theatre in college, lighting, etc. However, if we could continue this trend, I think drama club meetings might attract more people to learn more about our troupe and the people in it who do a bunch of hard work. Something fun might be a drama club bonding night. My freshman year, there was a 24-hour theatre being offered but, unfortunately, plans fell through. If we could go on "field trips" to go view shows together, start an improv flash mob at the park, or start another 24-hour theatre, it could be a great way to get to know people who work in areas of theatre you may typically not. Very often you see the techies, actors, and costumers sit in clumps. It's not that we don't like each other but so often we are working apart from each other. I think being able to place ourselves in new surroundings might be a great way to bond with each other more.