On Thursday, September 28 theater students were surprised to receive an email of resignation from Southwest’s new theater teacher, Zach Christensen. Since then, Southwest has been theater-free.
Students, staff, and families have enjoyed coming to Southwest productions of shows like Into the Woods and The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood for years now. Last spring, during the previous teacher Amanda Hayden’s maternity leave, Margaret Berg had filled in and directed the last musical, Mamma Mia, which students and staff seemed to be very happy with. When Berg returned this school year, the school was only willing to offer her a part-time job as the theater teacher, which she declined. This is when Christensen was hired, and all this started.
While Christensen’s reasons for quitting are not public, it may be related to how things were going with the students. He received many complaints from his class when they found out what he had planned for the fall: a play about George Washington. It was a play he and a college friend had put together, which former theater student Anna Bomar (‘24) tells us had many grammatical errors, lack of stage directions, and students who simply did not want to take part in it. During this time, the theater class reduced a significant amount leaving it at 6 students.
The Navigator is unsure of what the school is currently doing to find a new teacher, but students like Max Resnik (‘24) have hopes to bring back Berg. “They need to get Ms. Berg back, she is such a good director,” he said. “If you guys can write an article that makes her come back, that would be terrific for the theater program.” Many Lakers now have her as an English teacher, but the majority seems to prefer her in theater.
At the moment, it is unclear if there will be fall play. Between the lack of students and no theater teacher right now, it’s hard to tell when the next production will be. This is unfortunate news since everyone was looking forward to it, theater students the most, but for now, students will just have to wait and see.
