“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “The Wizard of Oz,” and “Chicago.” These are some of the many shows that have been showcased. This year there are many more shows than there were last year and this increase in productions doesn’t seem to be slowing down. While there were more shows this year than there were last year, Israel Aviles and Aundria Nuncio have announced that there is a reason for this uprising in theater productions. Both directors of the theater department have successfully composed and brought us many productions. This year being tech director Aundria Nuncio’s first year in the Theatre Department, she has assisted Avi in the numerous shows that have been showcased.
Israel Aviles and Aundria Nuncio, theater teacher/director and tech director respectively, have brought us laughs, fear, and awe. According to Aviles there has been a reason as to why there’s been so many shows.
“We have a new program in Champion Theatre, it is called Musical Theatre. It is new to us this year,” said Aviles. “Also this year we have an assistant technical theater director that we haven’t had in years past, so with the added help and with the added classroom for musical theatre we’ve added more shows.”
Since Aundria Nuncio has joined the Champion Theatre department as a technical director, she has assisted Avi with shows and the lighting needed to perfect them. However, there are many struggles that come with moving to a brand new school as a teacher and having to learn how things work.
“Coming into a new space in my first year teaching was a challenge but it’s been really great learning a lot from Avi and learning from the kids as well,” Nuncio says.
Discussing, directing, and perfecting productions takes days of work, but to Avi and Nuncio it’s no problem. They spend a significant amount of time on their shows so that it’s ready for them to showcase perfectly.
“[It takes] between 4 and 6 weeks per show depending on the size of the show,” Avi says.
Avi and Nuncio don’t just choose any show to do. They have a way with choosing the shows that they showcase.
“I choose shows based specifically on our talent on students that we have,” Avi says. “Basically kind of like a football team, so you pick your shows accordingly just like a coach would pick his play according to the talent that he has.”
Although there is always room for improvement within the year, both Avi and Nuncio have learned new things and possibly ideas to take into the next school year.
“We’ve learned that we have time to do more and more and that schools that aren’t performing at our level are really wasting time and talent, ” Avi says. “We know that our students are performing at a very high level at really a semi professional to professional level and we are so excited to have that type of talent here and it would be a shame to let it sit around and do nothing.”
