The whir of the saw machine echoes through the fine arts building as tech theater students build sets for the upcoming shows. Behind the curtains of every performance, the technical theater program sets up the designs for the stage and controls the sound and lighting, all under their director Courtney Hall.
Hall is a new director this school year. Hall was a former Bowie student and taught in the technical theater program at Bowie for a couple of years after graduating from college. In between working at Bowie and teaching an after-school architecture class, she accumulated new knowledge and re-sparked her passion for tech theater and sharing that enthusiasm with others.
“This is my third time at Bowie since I was here as a student and came back after college to teach,” Hall said. “Each time has been a new experience for me, and it’s cool seeing how it changes every time. The theater program here is pretty special, and while the other schools I’ve worked at have been great, there’s just something different about the Bowie theater. So, when the position opened up, I came back.”
She teaches Technical Theater 1, an introductory class for anyone interested in technical theater, during 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 8th periods, and advanced technical theater during 6th period. Hall wasted no time after returning to the job, reviewing safety with all of her tech theater classes before jumping into creating sets with her advanced students.
“We just finished reading the script for our fall show, ‘Our Town’ and we have split up into different groups to come up with set design, lights, and sound,” senior Sasha Zimmerman said. “‘Our Town’ is such a classic show, and it’s interesting to see how our ideas come together and how they are brought to life.”
Due to all the moving parts required to design a set, such as lights, music, and background, it is difficult to pull everything together. According to her students though, Hall does a wonderful job of balancing what needs to get done with taking the time to dive into all of the important pieces that make up technical theater.
“Having Mrs. Hall as a teacher is amazing because she gives us creative freedom, she listens to our ideas, and lets us work with them,” Zimmerman said. “She really lets us explore our personal outlooks on things and listens to our input when it comes to different ideas of tech, so it’s just incredible having her back.”
Hall teaches each student a little differently, based on what makes sense to them, constantly doing her best to answer their questions. Senior Opal Burns said she has benefited tremendously from Hall’s teaching style and agrees that having Hall as her advanced technical theater teacher, even just for this first month of school, has made her reflect deeper about the ideas of technical theater.
“This is my fourth year being involved in the tech theater program at Bowie, and Mrs. Hall is definitely my favorite tech teacher that I’ve had,” Burns said. “It’s a really good experience all around, especially with the right teacher. You get to learn a lot of life skills like how to build things using a bunch of different power tools.”
During class, Hall makes sure to cover both hands-on skills and also the ability to think outside of the box. This allows her students to practice creative and critical thinking with their peers and then bring those ideas to life.
“It’s nice seeing people interested in theater and all of their different mindsets when it comes to creating sets or analyzing scripts,” Zimmerman said. “My favorite part of tech theater is definitely getting to work with those people.”
Hall is excited to take the next step with these students and build a tech theater community that gives them not only lifelong skills but also lifelong friendships. She hopes that this class will help her students find what they are passionate about.
“High schoolers are so great, and I absolutely love teaching them,” Hall said. “It brings me so much joy when I see students find something in a class, and getting to be on that journey with them as they discover where their paths lead, whether in the theater industry or somewhere else, is amazing.”
