Theatre has been part of Aquinas’s tradition of excellence since the school was founded. Over the years, the Aquinas stage has fostered the creativity, skill, and confidence of generations of students. Our cast and crew members perform for audiences that include parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents who have performed on the same stage. Our current Theatre Director, Megan Barbour, is herself a third-generation alumna and former Aquinas actor.
Our annual theatre season offers performance opportunities for all our students, whether middle school or high school. The mainstage season includes three productions, all student run with adult supervision. Students are immersed in a wide range of genres, from contemporary shows (past shows include Hairspray, Little Shop of Horrors, and She Kills Monsters) to American classics (The Sound of Music, The Crucible, and Our Town), to Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Tempest).
Beyond the mainstage season, students further develop their craft through programming such as the annual 24 Hour Play Festival (which offers opportunities for student playwrights and directors as well as actors and technicians), workshops, and field trips. Our students have travelled to NYC, London, and Canada’s renowned Stratford Festival to enjoy performances, tours, and masterclasses.
In the classroom, our middle schoolers learn the elements of storytelling and collaborative performance, while our high schoolers dive into the world of the theatre through classes like Introduction to Theatre and Introduction to Production, Dramatics, Acting, and Public Speaking.
Additionally, our students attend the annual New York State Theatre Education Association (NYSTEA) Student Conference in the Catskills where theatre professionals from New York City and the East coast, along with college theatre programs, hold varied workshops over a three day period.
Aquinas’s commitment to the theatre arts can be seen in the variety of production experience, classroom instruction, and programming offered to its students. We hope you will join us as an actor, technician, patron, or audience member to make our season the best one yet!
Tech Crew:
The Aquinas Technical Theatre Program is responsible for the maintenance, program, and construction of all theatre productions, concerts, dance concerts, and visiting organizations. It is a completely student run organization; students are in charge of building, designing, and implementing all aspects of technical theatre. All tech students are encouraged to come to set construction, where work on lights, sound, set, costumes, and props happens. While most students eventually find an area they would like to specialize in as an upperclassmen, all students are encouraged to work in a variety of crews to learn more about the process as a whole.
