Lots of appreciation for the art of theater is coming to McDaniel. Theater is a wide community that has the ability to be impactful to the people involved.
“I’ve been influenced by theater for a huge part of my life, and I couldn’t be more grateful,” theater director Pearson Kunz said about joining the program here.
The new theater director had previously taught at Harrison Park Middle School.
“This was an easy move since Harrison Park feeds into McDaniel, so I already knew tons of students,” Kunz said.
This is Kunz’s sixth year teaching in a classroom, but they have been doing theater education for over a decade now. They taught at multiple other schools before coming here, but according to Kunz, some parts of McDaniel stand out when compared to others.
“The amount of opportunities you all have here is so exciting to me. You guys have an incredible building with classes that differ from topics like medical to construction,” Kunz said.
They love teaching theater for many reasons: one being getting to share one of their passions with students, and the other is the relief they have when it comes to the idea of AI.
“There’s this crisis of, ‘what’s AI gonna replace?’ But what I love about theater is that it’s un-AI-able,” Kunz said.
They took the job here because they were in contact with the old director.
“I was hearing about all the cool projects and shows McDaniel was putting on and couldn’t wait to be a part of it,” Kunz said.
CREED is a huge part of this school, and Community happens to be Kunz’s favorite CREED value.
“It’s one of my core values as a person, and it’s the reason I do theater because it’s such a community-based art form,” Kunz said.
Outside of teaching, Kunz has some impressive hobbies like film making.
“I just really love culture. I love trying new foods, going to see music, watching shows, anywhere in the city is where I wanna be,” Kunz said.
Senior Angelo Fernandez, who is a part of the theater program, thinks Kunz is delightful.
“They have such a strong social vibe to them,” Fernandez said. . “It’s so easy to get along with them.”
New perspectives and personalities are a big part of the theater community and how they get work done, according to Serena Baxter-Farnsworth, a junior in the theater program.
“They will bring a lot of new and fresh ideas,” Baxter Farnsworth said.
The theater program has their first show coming up in November, and it seems that Kunz is preparing to bring a twist to the theater program.
“We are performing Macbeth, but it’s not like the old traditional version, it’s a modern interpretation of it where we imagine Macbeth as an obsessed artist,” Kunz added.
Overall there’s lots of excitement coming from the theater department.
“I’m excited to push the boundaries of this theater program and do things that haven’t been done before,” Kunz expressed.
