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MACS Drama Program

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Check out what the MACS Drama program is like.

Show Transcript

hello I'm Aaron Pagoda and we are the director and producer of the max drama program the after-school Club and the most popular Club art programs of the school for now which makes the best it's pretty good teacher who really pushed for an after school program was Seth Carter and he pushed for the program in the old school building which is a couple blocks away and they did it in this very cramped space I will call the classroom because it wasn't meant to be a classroom and they converted good classroom space may move some chairs aside and it was actually the day that I got hired I was informed that I would you like to stay we're having our very first play you already had some Tucson ways to breathe life into the building three went down and watch this play and you could tell that the students were very nervous but it took it very seriously and I was impressed and I immediately thought this is something I could I could see myself doing I would love to be a part of this and we moved into this building through Network currently in 3 times smaller bookshelves that were sparsely covered with books mainly it was like a a storage room for every piece of junk nobody wanted in the classroom you just throw it in the quote-unquote library in eventually  we built a little tiny stage in that remember there's a huge supporting pillar column in the middle of the room and people in the audience would be stuck find that killer trying to watch the show news like this is not ideal but  but you just do it anyway because there was a there's a need for it because there were students who were auditioning who are showing up every year because there was an interest that was gradually growing the Schools administration Higgins was able to talk the board of directors and then it will fit the plan into the motorcycle to academies future we wanted to have an actual Auditorium a couple years phase one  huge literally we took over to classrooms to expand the auditorium we were down structural walls of the school in the crane had to bring in these huge girders these steel girders to refit the space we raise the roof I was literally raise the roof in the auditorium is huge phase one is essentially what we're looking right now actual stage I need at that point will get expanded the size of the auditorium but our equipment was still a weird limbo place we had been renting lights pictures of a connection Lauren had over the years those lights different configurations not always suitable for what we did but they were lights  the first couple shows we did have later just remember that we just kind of enflick the house lights of the ground  but then there was this answer I mentioned this earlier we've got to really make these shows good because if they pour it all this money and support into the program we've what's the bar game up we've got a really  true that this is something that's worthwhile  so that's been a challenge for us get nervous thinking about how we going on how we going to move forward what are we going to do in the students  it's funny you raise the bar and we'll meet it and Yuri 4 again and I'll meet it and then you start questioning to yourself when is it pushing too hard too much when is it at a level where the students we can do that and that's not happened yet if there is ever a sense of doubt it's usually quickly because we should keep our foot down and that and it usually end up blowing us away  the program is  what's a people with a wide variety of experiences we've had students that have come in that have never done a show before and then we've have students that have done shows and loved it and they know that this is what they want to do and no matter what level of student they're at we've been able to challenge them and offer them something and now I think this year reflected the students that have started in 9th grade that came in and saw are studying going to be sitting theater in college or they went in to audition at different colleges and got accepted and then we have students that do it for and they love their experience through a school so it's valuable experience for everyone he's participated in has been a good challenge what kind of activities we have this program plane going strong for eight consecutive years it's going growing and getting better every single year and doesn't matter what your level experience is if you have any interest we will take you we will work with you we will expose you to this beautiful world that what you just mentioned is huge the fact that we've had students who started fastest freshman to grown as a program has grown and now they're going to college and majoring in the Arts are majoring in drama musical theatre which blows are my and we are so happy to see that planting a small seed a couple years ago at now helped to grow into the fruitful tree neither people who have a newfound confidence I see this in the classrooms to try out for drama with her in the fall drama production or the spring Musical getting on stage here in fighting through your nerves you get this confidence and this experience that then carries over in a lot of different aspects of your life we do in class presentations in history and English the other departments and are drama students your guys kind of cat on them to raise the bar for the other students and so that is invaluable for them it's one of the things that I'm most proud of what this program you see these little quiet shy ninth-graders a cup is later you know they can get up in front of a whole room of people 200 people they making clearly convey their thoughts did you look the audience members in the eye and they can truly engage and not serve them as they get older  so that's something that you should definitely know about it'll help them your children and if you are a teenager to help you grow I'm ways you never expected then welcome to our family to the drama family will take care of you we have each other's back it's a good place

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