Finding a Home with Theater Arts

Poly’s Performing Arts Department aims to make every student feel at home with gender-blind casting and updated texts to suit contemporary audiences.

At Poly, participating in the performing arts can feel like a laboratory experiment. Take the recent Middle School classroom showcase of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast or the Upper School performance of Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. In both instances, faculty and students agreed that the original texts were outdated in terms of savior narratives and gender roles. The laboratory went to work, tinkering with the scripts until a new, updated outcome could satisfy contemporary audiences.

K-12 Performing Arts Department Chair Brady Frome calls his classes a collaborative process. Students have full editing ability and freedom to say when dialogue crosses a line. “We are trying to educate students and also ensure that each student’s voice is heard. We want each student to feel that they are a part of the show, rather than just a character playing a role,” Brady said.

Middle School student Ben H. ’29 has been taking performing arts classes since they were a kindergartener at Poly, eagerly taking any class they can and seeking outside involvement in theater programs. As a nonbinary student, Ben appreciates Brady’s refreshing take on updating texts and gender-blind casting. Ben shares that, for a classroom performance of Beauty and the Beast, students were allowed to play any role regardless of the character’s gender identity. It was a moment of exploration, and also acceptance, for Ben.

“Mr. Frome lets us not be restricted to our gender or our personality when we choose roles,” Ben said. “He really just lets us be who we want to be and doesn't question it. Since I identify as nonbinary, the productions make me feel accepted, because a lot of the time I'm constricted to being a boy because I present myself as a boy. There are not going to be any assumptions of gender in this class, and I can be who I want to be without fear of anything happening.”

The same principles apply to Brady’s costume design class. For many students hoping to get involved with theater, center stage may not feel like the most comfortable place for more introverted students. With a host of theater classes, there is a place for all to participate. 

In the Lower School, the Arts Program is the foundation for the comfort and safety that support students’ well-being. All creative and collaborative efforts—whether it’s a show, a song, or an instrumental piece—are carefully chosen to ensure that each student feels successful, is appreciated as a valued member of the community, and has an individual moment to shine. Lower School grade-level productions have contemporary themes to which students can relate, including the importance of being yourself, accepting others for who they are, the difficulty of fitting in, the challenge of making new friends, the importance of being kind, trying your hardest, putting an end to bullying, and many more subjects that are part of, and essential to, growing up with an open mind and open heart. These vital Lower School lessons last far beyond students’ Middle and Upper School years.

Like many other departments at Poly, performing arts has taken time to examine its history and future productions to ensure that all feel welcome in classes and performances. Middle and Upper School Performing Arts Instructor Megan Foley uses these same principles for musical arrangement and conducting with orchestra and jazz band. For so long, classical music has been dominated by men, and she is working to incorporate the music of women and people of color.

“I work to find music that is composed by underrepresented groups, because much of what is out there is dominated by men,” Megan said. “For the winter concert, I selected pieces of music by women, including Florence Price, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Yukiko Nishimura, and Katie O'Hara-LaBrie, as well as traditional Bach and contemporary pieces. I'm always trying to find music that creates a balance for what they should know instead of just traditional Western composers.”

Megan also works to empower students by allowing them to take on conducting roles and arranging original compositions. Perhaps because of this action, Megan reports increasing gender parity in her Upper School music classes.

Upper School Performing Arts Instructor and 10th-Grade Dean Cynthia Crass has been heavily involved in these discussions as a department, as well as finding roles that transcend casting. In February 2024, the Upper School performed The Laramie Project, a 2000 play about a hate crime that took place in Laramie, Wyoming. The intense subject matter is unfortunately still relevant in the United States and stirred discussion in the Upper School. Cynthia facilitated listening sessions with the school’s Queer-Straight Alliance and hosted a feedback session after the play debuted. Importantly, many LGBTQ+ students, along with allies, made up the cast and crew.

“I have long cast female students in male roles and changed the pronouns and other references in scripts to match the identities of actors,” Cynthia said. She also notes that sometimes references remain unchanged for audience interpretation. “It’s been an important adjustment to allow for more female student participation. I expect that some audience members might struggle with contradictions in their memory with what some roles are, but I leave that to them to figure out. It’s been a rich discussion for our department.”

Despite the labor that goes into these artistic decisions, many faculty say the students' reactions make it all worth it. According to Megan, performing arts is a safe place for many students. More than anything, the department is grateful for Poly’s institutional support in making these brave decisions.

“We're really fortunate that our division directors trust us and the decisions we make, and know that we're not making decisions on a whim,” Brady said. “We are intentional in making sure our students feel love, support, and encouragement. We've been really fortunate that we have support from every corner of the school.”