Is she still active at Gunston? That would tell you whether she is on leave or just not at DHMS.

That makes no sense. If the teacher was on leave, the school would still have theater classes. There would just be a substitute in place. There are no theater classes scheduled at DHMS this year.

Anonymous wrote:What is messed up is APS not being transparent about this at all.

How’s that?

Teacher is out on leave. They can replace as the position is protected legally.

What more do you want to know?

Anonymous wrote:Is drama being scaled back due to budgetary issues? Middle schools have added sports over the past five years, so I hope they are not cutting back in the arts.

All the APS middle schools have theaters, so it would be a shame for them to not be utilized as designed, for student productions.

No, the teacher is on leave. It’s not cut but they don’t have someone to run it right now

What is messed up is APS not being transparent about this at all.

Is drama being scaled back due to budgetary issues? Middle schools have added sports over the past five years, so I hope they are not cutting back in the arts.

All the APS middle schools have theaters, so it would be a shame for them to not be utilized as designed, for student productions.

Wow. I heard they threatened the Swanson drama teacher she would go down to half time. A half time teacher is not going to be able to support after school productions at any school. Lots of kids participate in these theatre productions between cast and crew. As if anyone would put up with oh sorry there is no more soccer and basketball team and just quietly and under the radar and only at some of the middle schools.

Anonymous wrote:They share the teacher with Gunston. She is on personal leave. No word on when she’s back. I found her to be a lazy teacher

How rude.

Huh that is odd. Swanson and Williamsburg both have theater programs, including a musical in spring. Hamm used to have one.

I also would suggest Encore.

They share the teacher with Gunston. She is on personal leave. No word on when she’s back. I found her to be a lazy teacher

Thank you for the suggestion! Will look at Encore Stage.

PP again - look at Encore Stage - they rehearse a few blocks from DHMS.

It’s small, and not inclusive. If your kid wants to be in this show, make sure they take choir. Dorothy Hamm is a fabulous school with a great principal, but the one terrible experience we had was with theater and it was bad enough that we raised it with the administration and we’re not the kind of parents who do that kind of thing.

Anonymous wrote:We are new to DHMS. Our middle schooler was looking forward to joining the theater program but we have come to understand there is not a theater teacher at this school. We thought there was a theater program last year so does anyone know whether it will be brought back this year? If not we will look for some outside opportunities for our son.

Just enquire with the school about auditions for the fall or spring productions. DHMS has a theatre department. They put on Alice in Wonderland last year.

We are new to DHMS. Our middle schooler was looking forward to joining the theater program but we have come to understand there is not a theater teacher at this school. We thought there was a theater program last year so does anyone know whether it will be brought back this year? If not we will look for some outside opportunities for our son.