President - Iris Taylor 

​In my time at Hale I’ve had the privilege to be part of the officer team 3 year in a row, twice as an inclusion officer and once (presently) as president. Now I absolutely loved my time as an inclusion officer and would love to talk about that but as our current inclusion officers will be doing their own raving, I shall speak to being president. It pushes you, but it is so rewarding. The part I’ve enjoyed and appreciated the most is working with the officer team. While I am president, before that role I am a part of a team; we work together, and we share responsibility and effort. It can be hard, but part of the journey is working through those hard parts, and in a president’s role you must be extra aware of those hard parts. You must be able to sit down and work through problems, whether it be social or schedule or anything else. But thankfully you don’t have to go it alone. As president you must also be able to listen to others, you must be honest and true to yourself and others. Okay that was a lot of more abstract part of being the president. Here are some concrete duties: the president makes the agenda for each meeting, they must keep track of what we need to talk about or check back in on, they need to lead discussions when a lead is needed, they help out with activities and etc. as much as is decided by the group/as they are able to, they must be prepared to answer questions or come up with ideas, and lastly they must help the group stay working together and recognize when something needs to change. I hope this helps you understand what it means to be a president of the drama officers.

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President Elect - Axel Sherwood 

Hi, I’m Axel Sherwood, and I’m the first person at Hale to hold the position of Drama Club President Elect.

When I found out I got the role, I wasn’t totally sure what it meant (I legit googled what president elect meant…) But over time, I’ve learned that it’s basically about understanding how the club works and what each person does. We meet once a week, and I’ve spent that time helping plan events, supporting the current officers, and being part of things like Honor Troupe. I presented for Honor Troupe at State this year, which was a huge learning experience. I’m hoping that next year I will be able to support whoever is doing Honor troupe as I know how it works. Being an officer has also made me more involved in the wider Nathan Hale community, I’ve helped at events like 8th grader open House and have been part of planning Bite of Hale.

Overall, this role has helped me see how the club runs and how much it means to the people in it. I’m excited to keep learning and hopefully stay involved next year. 

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Secretary - Uly Smucker 

Hello! It’s Uly! I’m the secretary for the 2024-25 Drama Department officers. While other positions do a lot more work out to you thespians, I help keep things organized within the leadership. I keep track of things that need to be done, make notes, sometimes remind others to do things. I help make sure we are organized enough to help run this department and club. I also help run drama club sometimes, if both the president and Vice president/president elect aren’t there (which isn’t very often, thank goodness). Other than that, I get to help contribute to this wonderful community in a fun leadership role. 

 

If this sounds like something you want to do, apply now to become a Drama Department Officer for the 2025-26 school year, and put in your preference of role; Secretary!

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Treasurer - Lillian West

​Hey! So you want to be treasurer, huh? Well, being the treasurer is a great time! Your responsibilities as treasurer include filling out building use forms and asb money collection forms, booking the student store, handling all money, and signing money use forms for Ms. Hanna as the student representative! Being the treasurer has taught me how to better manage my time and how to be proactive and plan ahead. Treasury is super fun and I hope you consider applying! 

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Marketing - Ravenna Donohue 

Alright, listen up. It’s time to learn about the best officer job there is: marketing. You might be wondering, what do I know about marketing? Well I became a marketing officer when I was a sophomore and I have been happily marketing since then. So, why is marketing the best job? First off you have to understand the appeal of officership in the first place. Being an officer means you get to be part of a stellar team who are all passionate about the same program and art that you are. I have so many fun memories with the various incarnations of officer teams that I have been on, whether it be playing teambuilding games at bonding nights, mid-tech meetings where we are all so tired that barely anyone can put together a coherent sentence, or just being able to look forward to meetings and Drama Club every week. As a drama department officer you also get to plan and run super fun theatre events like drama club, student store fundraisers, and troupe activities. It is a great way to be involved in the program and keep people engaged and invested in making theatre at Nathan Hale. And that's how you get to marketing. As a marketing officer it is my job to make sure that people know about the theatre that is happening at Hale, and doing our best to make people want to come see shows and events. While this all sounds fine and dandy, make no mistake, marketing is not for the faint of heart. Marketing can involve a lot of tasks that all come at the same time. We deal with managing and posting blogs and bios, taking rehearsal photos and coordinating photographers for headshots and production photos, running the website and social media, and decorating the carpet board, lobby displays and the occasional poster or two. This is where having a team comes in handy. Marketing works best when you divide and conquer, so you’ll never have to do it all yourself but you have to make sure that you are communicating with your team so that everything gets done. Marketing is also the only officer job that carries over to shows. Most officer positions are solely for drama department shenanigans outside of the shows, but as a marketing officer you have a guaranteed spot to do marketing for productions. 

Overall, marketing is such a fun job, you get to run the instagram and tiktok pages, manage production and rehearsal photos, and just generally be a part of a great community in a unique way. If you are wondering if marketing is the job for you, some qualities that have helped me succeed are being organized, good with words, enthusiastic and collaborative. I am so happy that I chose to apply to be a marketing officer and I think that you should too!!!

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Marketing - Willow Durst

I served as a marketing officer during my junior and senior years, and it has been incredibly exciting! As an underclassman, I wanted to be more involved in the theatre community at Hale, and I thought applying to be an officer was a great opportunity. I enjoy being on the marketing team because I get to be in charge of social media, deciding with the rest of the marketing team what to post for promotion, coming up with designs, creating posts, and fun TikToks! As well as learning how to manage a website. The other thing that I like about marketing is that it transfers over to productions, so I help manage things in our programs, our displays in the lobbies outside of shows, show promotion, and more. Plus, I get to put “Production Marketing” on my theatre resume for when I apply for jobs outside of high school. So if youre looking for a way to be more involved with theatre at Nathan Hale, I suggest applying for any officer position you think suits you the best! And if you choose to apply to be on the marketing team, it's important to be able to manage your workload, stick to a schedule, communicate with your team and director, and have a positive and outgoing attitude. Most of marketing is the good vibes you project!

 

Marketing- Lizzie Free 

​As a marketing officer, you get creative control over the Nathan Hale Theatre instagram, website, and other tools we use to plug our program. If you care about our program, want to share it with the world, and are very social and communicative, this would be a great position for you!

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Inclusion - Cove Taylor 

Inclusion. A word we use to make spaces feel safer, to make people feel wanted.

That is the biggest part of being an Inclusion Officer. To make people feel included in theatre here at Nathan Hale. We want Nathan Hale Theatre to be a space where everyone is welcome and feels wanted and safe. We think about the best way to make sure no one is excluded and making everything as accessible as possible to everyone.

Some other fun things, with the help of other officers, we do are:

- Plan games to play during Drama Club

- Plan troupe activities

- Make the spirit days to promote the shows

- Plan events like Performing Arts Award Night

- Plan the Lip-sync battle for Washington State Thespians

- Help promote theatre in our school

- Sell at the student store

- And so much more!!!

I have done many volunteer things in the past, but this job has been one of my favorites. I enjoy the incredible bonds I make with not only my fellow officers, but also the bonds I make with people that go to Drama Club. This is an opportunity that I have loved since my sophomore year, and I am so glad I got the chance to be a part of this.

I hope that this little blog gave you a little sneak peak into the wonders of being an inclusion officer. I hope you sign up for it and you have as much fun as I have had!

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Inclusion - Naomi Low 

Hey there! My name is Naomi and i’m one of two inclusion officers at Hale (along side my dear Cove). As an inclusion officer, it’s my job to: well…. include! Cove and I ensure that drama club and theatre at Hale is accessible and welcoming to all students. Whether that be helping organize sensory friendly performances of the play and musical, making accommodations to drama meetings, or simply being a familiar and welcoming face in our space. 

The great side of inclusion is how flexible and varied my tasks are. Often times, I will be more available than other positions to take on certain jobs. Which means I get to do all kinds of things! So far this year, a few things I have done are: co-run our Unity in the Community workshop, co-choreograph and run the lip sync battle (that we performed at state!), and created posters and displays (including the one that is currently outside the black box!). Next month, I also plan to create and present our AAPI month presentation, with the help of one of our marketing officers, Willow!

If you are looking for an introduction to being a drama officer, I highly recommend considering inclusion! It is fun, fairly relaxed, and all about helping our theatre community here at Hale!

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Vice President (position no longer applicable) - Lilith Sherrard 

If you are reading this I assume you are interested in becoming a drama department officer, so first off: thank you! Even just signing up for an application is putting yourself out there so good on you. Anyways, I am going to share with you the many different hats I have worn in my officering days so hopefully it will pique your interest and encourage you to apply!

First up: adaptability. In my sophomore year (22’-23’) I was the vice president of the drama department. That meant I played assistant quite a bit and filled in gaps as needed. This was a really great position for me because I get bored quite easily and this kept me on my toes and forced me to be adaptable. I had to figure out on the fly what my note taking style was like, how to fill out building use forms, and general administrative things that I didn’t understand in the slightest. It forced me to figure out things quickly and made me more comfortable in being wrong.

Next up, junior year! In the 23’-24’ school year I was the president! It was more of a shift than I anticipated for quite a few reasons but it was so valuable as an experience and it taught me so much about leadership. While that does sound kinda obvious, the things that it revealed to me were not what I thought I was going to encounter. I’ll tell you a secret about being a leader: people will come to you with questions, and you will not know the answer. And you have to learn how to be ok with that. Which is scary but the more you lean into the fact that you don’t know everything, the easier it becomes. I’ll admit, this took me a while to learn and it wasn’t easy. But when I did, it made a world of difference. Being a leader also means getting feedback, and it is hard not to take it personally. No matter how mature you are, how eloquent the feedback is, it still stings a bit when you’re being told something you’re doing isn’t working or is wrong. So learning how to separate yourself from “professional/work” feedback is another thing that being president forced me to learn.

Lastly, this year. 24’-25’, my senior year and I’m back where I started! VP, this was kinda fun for the perfectionist in me that always looked back on my first year as VP and kept finding things I could fix or make more efficiently but funnily enough, that isn’t what this ‘term’ taught me. There are two main things that it taught me and one of them I only figured out when I started writing this post an hour ago on April 30th, 2025. The first one is: DO NOT ANTICIPATE YOUR PROBLEMS!!! You are not a fortune teller and if you try and fix a problem before it happens, you will end up with more problems. This might sound obvious, but it’s little things that sometimes we don’t even realize we do. Next up: If you feel like you have a million problems, fix the oldest one. This is something I was taught many years ago as an equestrian, and I didn’t fully understand it until a few moments ago. Oftentimes with jobs and work there are problems and when those problems begin to add up, it becomes overwhelming. But usually, fixing just one of them will solve about 3 others.  At the beginning of this paragraph, I mentioned how I thought of this year as a place to increase efficiency, and I was so wrong. I got caught up in trying to get everything done in the 

quickest, easiest, and least time consuming way possible. Which led me to really fumble the ball on my duties as an officer, I became overly obsessed with a “perfect process” I totally ruined my end product. And that led to a whole other plethora of issues and I got so frustrated. It got to a point where I wanted to resign because I just felt like I was not fulfilling my job. But then I remembered that quote “If you feel like you have a million problems, fix the oldest one” and the constant for a lot of my shortcomings as an officer was my obsession with a perfect process. So I gave myself a bargain: chill out in general when it comes to a process and let things take their course, then fix problems as you face them. And if after two weeks of consciously implementing that, I still wanted to resign, I would’ve. But I am here writing this blog so obviously I didn’t. It wasn’t as easy as I made it sound but, when I made those changes, a lot of my “process issues” went away. Not everything was fixed, but everything was more manageable. 

Alrighty, time to wrap this up. This was more rambley than I anticipated but to recap: adaptability is scary but fun, criticism is hard but important, anticipating a problem is a self fulfilling prophecy and sometimes one problem was the cause of many others. These are my biggest takeaways from my work as an officer. If you think you have any of these qualities, I think you would make a great officer!! And if you don’t, I think you would also make a great officer! These are skills that I learned and probably wouldn’t have honed if I hadn’t been an officer. Which means you can learn and hone them too! Break a leg to all future drama department officers, you’re gonna do amazing things <3