Lights! Actors! Props! It’s all about auditions for the upcoming theater production “Little Shop of Horrors” in the Cy Woods Theater Company. Behind all the action is the new theater director, Jessica Byboth.
She may be new to Woods, but Byboth has been teaching theater since she was in high school.
“[My high school] got some English teacher to teach theater, [and she] was printing out worksheets,” Byboth said. “I actually asked my teacher if I could teach, so I started teaching between my sophomore and junior year of high school because I wanted to do something different than just worksheets.”
‘Different’ has always been on her agenda.
“With our [theater] classes, it’s different,” Byboth said. “It’s a different show. Everything is different for each part of it going throughout. And I like the challenge of that. I like to constantly be doing new things.”
Being in theater isn’t just about being on stage, either. Byboth says she wants her students to be able to learn leadership skills when they take her class.
“I want them to [have] the ability to work together as a team and the confidence to problem solve,” Byboth said. “And take that to any job that they’re going to have as an adult.”
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Pencils scratch against the rough canvas, paint smells fill the air. Rebekah Harper, the newest art teacher, watches as her students create masterpieces. An artist herself, she wanted to do something involving art, but wasn’t always sure she wanted to become a teacher.
“My old art teacher who’s at Bridgeland [now] pushed me to get this job,” she said. “Art is the one thing that really got me through high school. I would like to be the type of teacher that I had.”
Harper decided to teach at Cy Woods because she spent her four years of high school within these very walls.
“It feels very familiar,” she said. “And competing with other schools, I would say it’s a pretty nice school. Everyone’s very friendly and supportive.”
Harper says she hopes that by taking her class her students will be more confident in their art.
“I think the best advice would be to not compare yourself to other art and artists,” she said. “Because everyone starts from somewhere.”
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Right down the music hallway, the sound of singing flows out of the choir room, which the two new choir directors, Amanda Lathrom and Nathan Ponder, call their school-time abode. Lathrom used to teach at Dean Middle School, but she says she feels more comfortable teaching here.
“I like the level of music that they do,” Lathrom said. “And Cy Woods has a really great reputation for being one of the best high schools — if not the best — in Cy Fair.”
Ponder isn’t ne
w to Cy Fair, either. He spent his high school years at Cy Creek where he did choir. He says he wants to thank his high school choir directors for inspiring him.
“Without them, I probably wouldn’t be where I [am] now,” Ponder said. “
In college, Lathrom wanted to become a private voice teacher.
“As a private voice teacher, I was performing in choirs on the side, and I just missed the choir aspect,” Lathrom said.
Lathrom hopes that her students will gain confidence in their singing.
“I know that singing in particular is a very specific thing to the person,” Lathrom said. “Your voice is your voice. Nobody else has that voice. So being able to be vulnerable enough to share that voice, you will in turn grow confidence in yourself.”
