Have you ever seen a live theater show? Our school has participated in a national theater competition. The 9th grade has a theater program that some may not know about. Ms. White, the theater director new to our school, and she is helping teach the class of 2025 about the meaning of theater and its power.

Theater is live, where performers are actually up on stage acting and dancing. Ms. White is in charge of helping the freshmen learn public speaking and acting skills. She helped coordinate their moves and emotions in the monologue. This theater program is something to try to seek interest in students and help them express their emotions by performing a monologue.

William Zheng, a freshman at Baruch, speaks very highly of the program. “First of all, I believe that Ms. White coming to our school is something that we should cherish as she could have gone to other schools but still decided to choose ours.” Zheng states. “The way she would teach us about theater/drama is probably one of the best that we will get. Now diving more into the topics about the monologues, I’m sure that we can all understand it all has a special meaning whether it’s clear or not.”

Live theater is a way for people to connect and understand the meaning of the emotions expressed. It is also a very creative way to show how talented the students are. They are able to express a lot of emotions and they put their all into the performance. Memorizing a monologue or play may take a while, but over time it becomes second nature. Every student has their own opinions about the performance, some being nervous or some being excited!

Jason Cheng says, “A monologue contest is a competition where people come and perform the monologue they chose. They will be acting as if they are the protagonist and express their movement and emotion accordingly. I feel like the monologue contest would be fun but also competitive at the same time because this is the first time majority of the high schoolers are doing this, but everyone is in the win. I will not be participating in the competition.”

Another student Darragh Boyle says, “The monologue contest is something the freshman are doing where we memorize a monologue and perform it. I personally feel excited about the performance aspect of the monologue. And no, I will not be doing the contest.”

The monologues can be stressful, but in global literature 9th graders have been learning some steps on how to express emotions easier and some ways on how to memorize the script better. Congratulations and good job to every participant!