About halfway through high school, I discovered drama and never looked back. I took drama classes and performed in productions, later graduating and pursuing a degree in Musical Theatre.
One thing that has always stuck with me is the importance of the arts in my education. During one of my last shows in high school, we gathered together in a circle, as we did before every performance, but this one being the final night, I noticed that people began to open up about their experience in high school, as many students were graduating that night.
At least three students in the cast shared their struggle with mental illness throughout their high school career, citing drama as their saving grace, their reason for coming to school every day. One castmate in particular said, that if it weren’t for drama, he wouldn’t be in school, and most likely, wouldn’t be alive. Drama gave him a reason to show up everyday, and he felt an allegiance to a theatre family that had evolved out of nothing.
I have heard this story many times, and know it myself, this tale of how drama, how art brought happiness to people when they needed it most. When I taught English and Drama in Morocco, I remember the smiles on my student’s faces as I watched them perform on stage. It was a look of liberation, of freedom, in front of a sea of faces.
This, I realized, was the reason I too loved the stage. It was as though, I alone, stood bare and vulnerable, yet at the same time felt liberated and limitless.
I will always be an advocate for the arts. As an old high school teacher used to say, “we need it [arts]. Without passion, we are nothing.”
Fez, Morocco
Комментарии