The watchword of the Thacher Performing Arts Program is “inclusive,” and students quickly discover that acting is for everyone. We see it as a highly collaborative art form. Theater can become a wonderful team “sport,” with individual expression thriving as part of a collective creative vision.

Students first encounter drama through Introduction to the Arts, a course in which they peel away self-consciousness and learn to trust themselves, take chances, make mistakes—and laugh about them. As an important element of the class, students build an ensemble, gain confidence, and eventually take on a final project—a live piece, radio play, satirical skit, music video, or short film—that the students themselves generate.

Students can further hone their skills in Advanced Acting, offered for a semester or a full year to sophomore, junior, and senior actors. Students study movement, voice mechanics, and various theories of acting. They also work intensively on scenes and monologues, both published and original. The class puts on two performances a year, in formats ranging from original productions to short films.

Each year the Performing Arts Program also produces two full-length plays. In the fall we stage a drama; recent productions include The Importance of Being Ernest, The Water Engine, and The Night of January 16th. The winter brings a Broadway musical; recent productions include Oklahoma!, Bye Bye Birdie, and The Music Man. With upwards of 60 students working onstage and behind the scenes to see a musical to fruition, the production provides not only memorable moments in the spotlight and running it, but also comes to serve as a mid-winter, full-on celebration of the whole Thacher community.

All Thacher theatrical productions draw on a host of resources, with students doing everything from helping to design and sew costumes to doing tech work to playing in the pit band and working backstage as set crew.