Photo courtesy of Asher Martin ’23

Brophy theater is moving in a new direction under Ms. Brooke Feldman, the new head of the theater department. Hoping to raise student interest, two of her main goals for this year are to “figure out what students are interested in,” and to move away from the “glitz and glamor of big musical productions,” said Ms. Feldman. 

Instead, Ms. Feldman mentioned that she is hoping to focus on productions that engage with the “human condition” and feature a wide range of emotions. “It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been in a theater department and now that I’m here I always pick shows based off of what I think is a good learning experience,” said Ms. Feldman. 

She has a background in musicals, dance and speech and debate and says she wants to see what Brophy can do within the space of the Black Box theater and hopes to be able to pick shows that students are excited to do. “We should own our productions and feel happy with our productions and have audiences come into the Black Box and go ‘Woah I can’t believe that they did that in this space,’” said Ms. Feldman, commenting on her goals for the year. 

Ms. Feldman is also teaching a theater class this semester, which she says will help students to feel less intimidated by theater and enable them to participate in more shows throughout the year. 

“Last year we had an acting class, but not many people signed up for it. Part of this year for me is to figure out what students are interested in,”  Ms. Feldman said. 

Ms. Feldman says that she would like to put an emphasis on productions that are focused on introducing more Brophy boys to theater such as ‘Twelve Angry Jurors.’