The dark stage is suddenly illuminated, and the actors are bathed in light as they take their final bows. The audience cheers, displaying their approval for the tale about Dungeons and Dragons and involving monsters galore. What the audience doesn’t see are the countless hours of preparation and guidance that go into every production. On that stage, director Alex Delgado takes the lead role.
Delgado, the new director at BHS, graduated from Elon University before receiving her master’s degree in theater education from Emerson College. She was a student teacher at the high school in 2022 and learned much from performing arts teachers Mark Vanderzee and Elena Maimonis. Delgado made her director’s debut at the high school when she directed the fall play “She Kills Monsters” and is currently helping to direct the 2025 Spring Play, “The Wolves of Gubbio.” Delgado has prioritized building community and creating a supportive environment, helping high school theater to thrive.
Vanderzee said that Delgado’s experience as a student teacher and her continued passion for theater at the high school have improved her skills as a director.
“One of the great things about having her direct here was that she understood the culture and understood the values that we like to see in our work,” Vanderzee said.
Delgado said that since a production requires so many people with such different roles to work together, fostering an inclusive and welcoming community is an essential aspect of theater.
“I just love the collaborativeness of [theater]… and you get to really know people that you may have not known otherwise,” Delgado said. “I remember when I was in high school doing plays, I was a sophomore and I really admired the seniors, and I felt like, ‘Oh, they’re not gonna want to be my friend.’ But then I really got to know them, and they felt like [they were] not only great leaders, but also like a friend and someone that I could trust.”
Senior and Drama Society Executive board member Ivy Bass, the lead actor in “She Kills Monsters,” playing Agnes Evans, said that during the preparations for the Fall Play, Delgado made an effort to create a tight-knit community from the start.
“During auditions, we did improv[ization] and got into groups with people we didn’t really know too well,” Bass said. “Literally on the first day, before we even knew our parts, we got to meet each other and work together to create stuff. And then during rehearsals, we would eat lunch together or eat dinner together. We played some games, we warmed up every day together. It was really fun.”
Junior Yijin Sun, stage manager for the Fall Play, said that Delago also encouraged the actors to be independent, allowing them to fully embody the parts that they played.
“She gave actors a lot of freedom in terms of figuring out characters and blocking. She would set guidelines and then [help] them on the way to figuring out their characters, but she would let them do that figuring out themselves,” Sun said.
Sun said that Delgado’s willingness to get to know the cast and crew helped the show come together smoothly and strengthened personal connections on and off the stage.
“A good director can make a show, a bad director can break one,” Sun said. “I think a lot of what really helped was she was always ready to have a conversation with anyone. Not even important ones. Just like fun ones, just like, ‘Oh, I’m sorry about your math test. Good luck with your English project,’ stuff like that. And she was always very accessible.”
While being in a leadership role was new to her, Delgado said that the supportive theater community and her passion for the play helped her to be successful.
“It was a little nerve-racking at first because I was learning all the customs because BHS has a lot of traditions and a very certain way of doing things, but I adapted really quickly,” Delgado said. “The students were great. It was just such a good collaborative effort between students, other faculty members, and it was just very supportive. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of everyone.”
