After Kevin Norfleet resigned from his drama teaching position in the middle of the school year at North High last year, the theatre department struggled. Senior Tionna Wear describes it as difficult, saying “After he quit we were kind of dead for a while…it kind of lost a lot of its meaning.”

Despite the many strong and passionate actors involved in the theatre department, losing a teacher that many students had a close relationship with caused the department to slowly dwindle.

Wear believes that North’s new Drama teacher Anne Amstutz is the reason why the theatre department is thriving this year. Her nuclear combination of passion and connection with theatre teachers in the district as well as the students have made incoming freshmen and departing seniors alike more interested in the theatre department. She also believes that seniors have played a part, due to their passionate advocacy to get more people involved in theatre.

Amstutz said that “She loves theatre and is excited for the opportunity to teach it full time.” Before teaching here she taught choir and computer graphics at Clearwater High School. She ran a theatre club after school where she would teach students about theatre and perform in plays. She loves theatre because it incorporates choir and computer graphics, things that she is passionate about. “Theatre combines all the things I love most, like computer graphics could be a part of theatre when you do marketing, music could be a part of theatre when you do musicals.”