March is often associated with the beginning of spring and St. Patrick’s day, but to high school theater students it also provides an opportunity to host festivals, dress up days, and other events to inspire community and togetherness.
Theater in Our Schools Month (TIOS) is celebrated annually in March by students and educators across the country, allowing students to promote their art and celebrate the benefits of high school theater.
Junior Jilian Garris believes there are two primary goals of the event. “Firstly,” Garris explained, “it’s to make the broader school community aware of theatre, and the benefits it has on students and why it should be supported. Secondly, it provides an opportunity for thespians to celebrate their own involvement in the art.”
The benefits of participating in theater are vast, including hard skills like public speaking, but also many soft skills, such as organization and leadership.
PV Drama Club president Kiera Bowman has had life changing experiences in theater. “Theatre builds really great character and interpersonal skills that are helpful in all walks of life. The teamwork, communication and time management skills learned through theatre are unparalleled,” she said.
The PV theater department has been very involved with TIOS celebrations, encouraging members to participate in dress up days with themes such as show shirt Monday, techie Tuesday, and what else Wednesday. PV participants were reposted alongside students across the state on the student thespian officer instagram, furthering the sense of community the event intends to promote.
Social media has been a large part of the celebration this year, not only reposting dress up participants, but also posting daily fun facts and encouraging a month long game of bingo.
Also tied into the month’s festivities is Junior Thespian Festival. While not directly associated with TIOS, Garris believes that it is closely associated with events due to its similar goals.
“The point of Junior Thespian Festival is to encourage a deeper passion for theatre in our junior high thespians,” Garris explained.
To round out the month, PV hosted an open mic night and invited high school theatre troupes around the area to participate. With almost 50 performing acts representing 3 different schools, the event was deemed extremely successful by Bowman. “We had standup, singing, instruments and dancing to name a few,” she added.
The event was especially successful in bringing theater students from different schools together, “It was a very supportive space and we got to know some people that maybe we’d never met, but we instantly got along with because we all had this thing tying us together,” Bowman said.
However, theatre in our schools month also has brought many challenges. Garris, this season’s communications student thespian officer, was involved in the both statewide and district planning for the celebration, and found that involvement was lacking. “On the State scale, the biggest issue was trying to encourage participation,” she said.
Urging participation from the local community was a challenge the drama officers faced. In previous years events have been planned to try to bring together local theater students but were unsuccessful due to a lack of communication with other schools. “This year, we got started early and reached out to a lot more schools, and managed to work with way more schools than before,” Garris recounted.
While often overlooked, theater has an impact on many high school students. Bowman hopes that Theater in Our Schools month will increase students’ appreciation for the activity, even from those who aren’t directly involved.
“Theatre in our schools month is all about celebrating this extracurricular activity that oftentimes doesn’t get very much recognition but is an important part of so many kid’s lives,” Bowman said.
There are many ways to get involved with PV theatre, with drama club meetings regularly and the spring play, “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” performing at the end of May.
