Passionate about theater from a young age, Christina Monaco is a theatrical stage manager and Technical Director at the high school. When she’s not working in theater, she enjoys spending time with her roommates, cooking and doing anything art-related.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Has anything stood out to you in these first few weeks?
I have been very excited by how willing students are to get their hands dirty, to start working. I think it’s a fun break from everyday school work, so I feel very encouraged by how much they want to start building and want to understand how to put things together and be creative.

What led to your passion in creative arts and technical theater?
I did a lot of my early years as a performer, and I really enjoyed that. I found I really loved the community of theater. As I got more into it, I realized I don’t think I have what it takes to be a performer as a career, but I really wanted to stay involved because I loved the community. I got more interested in the backstage side of things, and I found that I really liked the organization and all of the things that go into making this whole big machine work together. Since then, I have slowly expanded my role to learning stage management, lights, sound, building and growing my repertoire that way, which has been very fun and rewarding for me.

What was something fun you remember from high school?
Theater was a huge part of high school for me so I really remember the tight-knit community and the intensity there was around every show. That was a huge part of my social life and my creative development, so I like being back here and being able to see that same intensity and passion in my students. It’s really cool to be able to come back to that.

What were some highlights of your summer?
My summer was really cool because I had the chance to work on my first-ever professional theater program. I got to work as a stage manager with a professional theater company. That was really exciting because it was a whole different side of the industry that I haven’t gotten to experience yet.

What do you like about working with high school students?
I appreciate their ability to focus. I taught a lot of middle schoolers in the past and they’re just really all over the place, which is true for some high school students, too. But I really like where you can get a student hooked on something that they’re really interested in and they just lock in and put all their effort into that.

What is a hope you have for your students?
I hope that my students will take pride in the work that they are doing, whether it is building something physical or designing something. I hope they will take ownership in their creative projects, be excited and put in the effort to make them really strong.