Our award-winning Arts Department strives to provide every student with opportunities to explore artistic creation in visual arts, drama, and music from a personal, cultural, and historical perspective. JCHS faculty, as artists and instructors, believe in every student's ability to create meaningful work. It is this principle that enables our program to thrive. JCHS offers courses including studio art, photography, AP art history, theater lab, playwriting/screenwriting, instrumental ensemble and vocal ensemble. Each year, we produce three theatre productions (a musical, a comedy and a drama), one musical concert and springtime Art Crawl.
Why do you teach?
Teaching allows me to show students a path to express their passions and beliefs and to help them discover confidence. Although a performance has a momentary effect on the audience, teaching someone to have confidence to speak in front of an audience or to find their voice as a writer can have a lasting positive impact.
Directing, like teaching, gives me the ability to inspire thoughts and understanding in an audience who has seen my work. I love when people tell me they thought about one of my shows after they left the theatre― that seeing my production of a play that kept them up all night thinking or made them understand something in a deeper way than they had previously. | | 
What do you most appreciate about your work at JCHS?
There is such richness in the collaboration I have with my colleagues at JCHS. For the 2008 fall musical, Cabaret, our Humanities Chair and I collaborated to find ways to engage the cast in the time period – Weimar Republic, Germany. Ms. Frandina taught historical perspectives to the cast and then gave an overview of this period before the entire school at an all-school community block when we performed a number from the musical.
During the production of The Rubenstein Kiss I had the opportunity to work with Director of Experiential Education Evan Wolkenstein on how Jewish themes played a role in the play. I also partnered with history teacher Aaron Pollack so students could examine the Red Scare of the 1950’s, and the historical context of the Atomic Era. The knowledge, resources, and inspiration the professional community shares with one another is what makes JCHS an incredibly unique place to teach. I know that you have worked at Cal Shakes each summer for a number of years. Tell me about your work.
One thing that is wonderful about working with Cal Shakes is being a teaching artist with a professional, regional theatre company whose mission is to reinvigorate the classics. I love being immersed in Shakespeare for five weeks each summer, working with students on this profound literary material, and making it come to life. I am considering a Shakespeare play for next season at JCHS, so my work at Cal Shakes is allowing me to hone my skills in directing Shakespeare.
As a theatre artist working professionally in the Bay Area, I am able to provide JCHS students with my own professional knowledge and as well as bringing in as other Bay Area theatre professionals to work on JCHS shows. For our 2008 spring comedy Twentieth Century, I brought in a professional fight choreographer, Kai Morrison, who staged and taught the cast 20 fight sequences. Kai and I have worked together professionally and he will be working with us again on Little Shop of Horrors. Sometimes, my students also have the opportunity to see shows I direct in the community with professional actors. They have the opportunity to see me both as an instructor and as a professional in the field. | | |
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