Returning to the Stage: Finding Community and Theater in Lake Chapala, Mexico

Before I started high school, my mom got a call from the Westside High School guidance counselor. The French class I wanted to take was completely full, and I needed to pick another elective. My mom decided to put me in theater.

When she told me, I cried.

I was pretty shy back then- I blushed basically anytime someone said my name- and I couldn’t imagine standing on a stage in front of people. She asked me to give it a try. I did, and it turned out to be the place where I would truly find myself in high school.

At the time, I was an insecure, emo-leaning teenager. I loved listening to The Smiths and The Cure, but also Joan Baez and Buffy Sainte-Marie- clearly drawn to big, heavy emotions, often staying inside my own head. I cried easily (I still do). I couldn’t quite figure out my place in the world. I wasn’t one of the popular kids, and I didn’t care much for conforming. I was always in honors classes- we unironically named ourselves the “Nerd Herd” in middle school- but I wasn’t entirely a nerd either.

I liked to socialize, ask questions, and figure out what made people tick. I highly identified with The Breakfast Club and loved picking people’s brains, whether they were jocks, nerds, preps, or fellow weirdos.

All of this made me a perfect fit for the theater.

I started in drama class with Rick Mascaro, who became my director for many plays to come. Eventually, I auditioned for Charlotte’s Web at the Project Challenge Playhouse, securing the role of Mrs. Arable. Mr. Mascaro clearly saw me as a mother figure, casting me as the mom in many future roles! I went on to act throughout high school in productions like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Diary of Anne Frank.

On weekends when I wasn’t performing, I was riding the bus to area high school drama competitions, belting out They Might Be Giants on the long drives. I found my community. I found my people. I found myself.

Rick Mascaro, high school drama, Project Challenge Playhouse, and that fun, wonderfully weird group of friends became my safe haven. I honestly don’t know what I would have done without them.

(Speaking of the Playhouse: It breaks my heart to share a recent update from home. After 39 incredible years of shaping young lives, Project Challenge Playhouse in Anderson, South Carolina, was recently told they can no longer use their longtime theater space, leaving them without a home. Theater kids past and present are speaking out and demanding it reopen. Places like PCP save lives and build lifelong creative souls- they deserve to be protected. Click this to read more about the story.)

After high school, I continued theater at Winthrop University with roles in The Diary of Adam and Eve and A Touch of the Poet. But when I transferred to Clemson University, I found the theater community cliquey and exclusive. I felt pushed out, and I abandoned something I deeply loved.

Throughout my many years of teaching, I tried to keep that spark alive. I brought theater to my students through field trips to the Peace Center, directed two school plays, integrated Readers’ Theater to build reading fluency, and ran a drama club. But in the back of my mind, I always wondered: Would I ever return to the stage myself? If I was ready, would the theater world welcome me back, or had I stayed away too long?