After much conflict in Benson’s theatre department, an exception has been granted to now former construction teacher, Thomas Sibbitt, to take charge of bunny drama.
Even with his extensive formal theatre education however, this will still be Sibbitt’s first year teaching drama.
“I feel like I get to restart as a first-year teacher,” Sibbitt said. “But now I know about classroom management, and I know about a lot of connecting, what we’re doing in class, assessment outcomes.”
Omaha Public Schools had always had the requirement of a four-year English degree at minimum to become a drama teacher. After his predecessor’s leave though, Sibbitt took his chances.
“I had some conversations at the Nebraska Department of Education, they had allowed another drama teacher in a different district to get a career certification, so long story short, I asked and they said yes,” Sibbitt said.
Teaching drama and theatre is a dream come true for an old theatre nerd.
“I love the opportunity to collaborate with our students; that’s the biggest thing,” Sibbitt said. “They’re really energetic and really creative. Young people are willing to take big risks that older folks aren’t necessarily (willing to).”
And with these new students, a new group of officers for Benson’s chapter of the International Thespian Society had been created.
Even with a new teacher and new students, though, the stage was not quite ready. Having gone through three teachers now, the Mary McNamara Auditorium was not in the best shape. The stagecraft and drama classes, however, have been working on fixing the place up.
“We’re in the process of updating the theatre in every way that’s in our power to do,” Sibbitt said. “We’re painting the stage, we’re cleaning out a lot of the old scenery and we’re saving what we can.”
Besides the physical challenges of the theatre, there are also the monetary ones.
“Benson is a challenging place to do fundraising, I think it’s a bigger priority for us to be in support of our students than to ask money from them,” Sibbitt said. “Figuring out how we’re going to be economical with our funding and creative ways for our program to generate income are big challenges.”
The newly chosen treasurer, sophomore Samuel Soe, and fundraising officer, junior Alaya Harris have been assigned to solve this problem.
“We plan to gather everyone as a team and go shopping for our fundraisers,” Soe said. “We might also collab with other Benson clubs to work together on fundraising.”
With dedicated new members and the production of the winter play, The Hobbit, in full swing, the future of Benson drama looks bright, and the actors are just as excited about that.
“It’s been awesome. I’ve never been in a drama program so maybe I’m not the best judge, but Mr. Sibbitt already knows what he wants to do with this,” Freshman Araelia Kennedy said.
