The Truth About Theater Teachers in Summer

If one more person jokes about teachers having summers off, I might start charging them a ticket to watch everything I juggle from June to August.

The truth? Summer is a full-on production for theater teachers. No curtain calls, no applause, just relentless planning, prepping, fundraising, and collaborating to ensure that when the school year starts, we are ready.

What Summer Actually Looks Like for Theater Teachers

Summer break means scripts spread across my living room, production meetings squeezed in between errands, and fundraising calls made from parking lots. It means chasing down performance rights, planning rehearsals, designing sets, and taking inventory of our existing stock.

It means meeting with music department colleagues to plan our Christmas production, helping them navigate rights and licensing for a new kind of show. It means talking to educational partners and scouting professional shops for student opportunities. 

And it means constantly keeping admin in the loop. Not because they ask, but because they often don’t know what they don’t know. We teach them what it takes, gently, and repeatedly.

Why This Work Matters

We do all of this because we care about the student experience. We want them to walk into the fall semester feeling like they’re part of something magical. That only happens when the bones are built months ahead.

It matters because this work builds confidence in our students, especially our girls in tech who need to see women leading, building, managing, thriving. It matters because collaboration is the beating heart of theater.

It matters because we can’t deliver if we don’t plan. If we are to get from September to June with our sanity intact, June to August is all about laying the foundation. Summer is executive planning, school year is execution and modification. 

What We Wish Admins Knew

Most of the resistance we encounter isn’t cruelty, it’s unawareness. Administrators aren’t trying to block the work; they just don’t know what the work is. Rights fees, production costs, rehearsal needs, they don’t see it unless we show them. We've had upper level administrators surprised that we don't do the same shows every year. Our building admin had no idea we had to pay for the rights to do shows.

So we tell them. Over and over again. We keep receipts. We send updates. We invite them in, not to micromanage, but to understand.

If You're Doing This Work Too...

You're not alone.

Document what you're doing. Share it with your team and your leadership. Ask for help where you can, not because you can’t do it alone, but because you shouldn’t have to.

Bring students into the process. Make fundraising a service project. Let community members support you with in-kind donations. The load is lighter when it’s shared.

And if no one says it to you this summer: I see you. I know what it takes. You are doing the work that makes the magic happen. That deserves more than a standing ovation.

If you want to connect, you can find more of your people at Backstage AIC on Facebook.

If you need resources, visit our website BackstageAIC.com