Theater is Discovery

April 2026

Rob Harper teaches middle and high school drama and stagecraft, directs and supports KIS theater productions, and encourages all of us to appreciate the performing arts.  

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Theater is fun. Theater is a way to be creative while discovering who you are. Theater is all these life skills you need to develop, like teamwork, self expression, and communication. Theater is a supportive, talented community of people ready to put on an accent, paint a set, and run your lines. 

We believe anyone can join a KIS theater production and find their place. Middle and high school drama and stagecraft classes support our shows but we also invite all students to participate. Theater gives students a chance to try a lot of different roles in production as set designers, sound and lighting techs, choreographers, front of house marketers, backstage crews, actors, singers, and dancers. Trying different roles is also an opportunity to take risks, fail, and succeed. Theater builds resilience and resilience is one of those essential skills we want all students to carry into their future. It’s okay to make mistakes – we learn from mistakes and try better the next time.

Theater provides students with skills that are attractive to prospective colleges and employers. In a world where we hide behind screens and where everyone now has knowledge due to the rise of AI, personable skills, confidence, risk-taking, storytelling, public speaking, courage, and adaptability are qualities increasingly sought after but also increasingly scarce. Theater is a course that allows students to cultivate these attractive skills. During our fall college tour, we met many students at top universities who had experience in theater.
– Dale Samuels, high school counselor

Sometimes I think about how I got here, grateful for the inspirational teachers I learned from in school as a kid, teenager, and young adult. I took my first theater class because a friend was taking the class but then my theater teachers allowed me to be silly and serious as I developed social and performance skills and figured out who I was and what I wanted. Now when I teach I remember the kind of environment my teachers created that supported and challenged me with guidance and direction for stage and life. 

Now I am at KIS. I joined the school at a great time to help grow the theater program with support from my colleague Rhian Claydon and our administrators. We put on amazing performances and offer strong elective courses – this school year over 140 students performed, supported tech, or worked on crew in the middle school production of Matilda and the high school production of The A.I. Play. I am especially proud of the opportunities theater provides students interested in directing and producing. This spring one of our seniors, Joanna, directed the high school Theater Scene Club performance of 10 Ways to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse. 

KIS continues to grow a sustainable, thriving theater program. Next year I hope even more students find their way to the stage – or backstage or in the sound and lights booth or working in costumes and makeup or building the set and designing props. Like I said, there are so many ways to be involved! 

At the start of each school year I welcome students and remember showing up to my first theater class with no idea how much fun I’d have – or the skills I’d develop. And then I wonder who will be surprised to realize they are a theater kid too. For me, for all of us, theater is discovery.