The main goal for any school sponsored extracurricular activity is, first and foremost, to provide students with an enjoyable outlet that can also help represent their school. A successful extracurricular gains participants every year while providing students with a way to express themselves. Extracurriculars like these deserve support from their school. Judging from these qualifications, the Glenbard Theatre Department deserves support from the students, teachers and administration. Although, some might say that support for theatre is irrelevant compared to other activities, like football, the drama department at South deserves all the support it gets and more for all the hard work it does.

Drama deserves support because of its increasing participation. Tom Skobel, head of the Theatre Department here at South said, that this year alone 10-15 new faces will be popping up, on and off, stage for the fall musical, “Into the Woods.” In just a few years, many of these newcomers will become more acquainted and comfortable with the program and will be able to mentor new theatre recruits in years to come. This increased participation is an incredible accomplishment for a program that can sometimes go unnoticed. Increasing participation is a vital step in expanding and improving as a program and even as a school. With enthusiastic support for a certain school program, comes more school spirit overall.

In addition, the Glenbard Theatre Department deserves support for its creative new additions and increased ticket sales. Skobel has announced that this year in mid-march the Glenbard South Theatre Program will be offering student directed showcases. These brief one act plays will  showcase acting and directing talents in a condensed setting with a hands-on approach. These new shows will display the theatre students’ hard work. Obviously the hard work that is put into acting will be showcased, but in turn the work put in behind the scenes with the scenery will be visible. Some of the actors in these one-act plays will be participating in two plays simultaneously. The hardwork and dedication of the students involved in the Glenbard South Theatre Program will be evident in these upcoming shows because the students will have to build, act and direct their own shows.

As mentioned before, work is put in on and off the stage to create a complete show. Set design, tech and the stage managing aspect of the show are all vital factors that come into play to get a performance up and running. Set design has taken a bigger focus this year than in the past few years. Actors and crew members alike dedicate 8 hours of their Saturdays every week to creating the masterpieces that are Glenbard South sets. Some of the jobs these hardworking thespians partake in are drilling wood into set pieces, painting set pieces and most recently breaking up twigs and branches to be used in the building of the forest in “Into the Woods.” Their hard work on and off the stage should be praised and appreciated.

On the whole, all extracurriculars deserve support, participation and success. No matter what sport, activity or club, the participants in each program work hard to represent their school well by giving their peers and teachers something to be proud of and root for. If a club or program at a school performs well, it looks just as well on the school as it does on the program.  The theatre program, in particular, has certainly become alive in this manner at Glenbard South.