For Vincent Chiriaco, the West Limestone faculty sponsor who first started the school’ s plucky Theatre program and continues to serve as its indefatigable do-it-all director and teacher, reaching that next level is far from topping his list of priorities for the students who entrust him with their first acting leap.
“ I ' m not trying to run this like a stage, studio or anything like that,” says Chiriaco, who welcomes comparison between his Theatre Department and the unpretentious ethos of a small-town community theatre club.“ At the end of the day, it ' s an education for them. I don ' t cast to who ' s necessarily the‘ best.’ I cast to commitment and character. People who have been with me the longest, I will give them preference— because they put their trust in me from the beginning.”
Fresh off their springtime performance of One Stoplight Town— a one-act play that explores the heartwarming havoc a new traffic signal can cause in a tiny town where even little news can seem big— the Theatre students at West Limestone are definitely getting a topto-bottom crash course in how to bootstrap a production. Since its 2024 founding, the department’ s fallen into a rhythm of staging two plays each year … and with every iteration, the students have gotten better and better at it.
Credit Chiriaco’ s faith in the power of untapped ability; the belief that, if given an opportunity, kids who might never know otherwise can learn a lot about their latent artistic and expressive sides. For some students, acting is even a way to emerge from an introvert’ s shell; one often bound by the inscrutable unspoken rules that delineate high school’ s delicate social maze.
“ I have really bad social anxiety,” confesses Theatre member Samara Collins.” But, I like being on stage in front of people where I can act like I’ m somebody different. That’ s why I joined— because that ' s the only way you can do something like that here. I love knowing [ in advance ] what I have to say and not, like, stumbling over my words. For me, that makes it so much easier than having to come up with something to say. I don ' t have to be shamed for saying something when I’ m not the one who came up with the lines— so it doesn ' t matter!”
There are certainly older, more established, and bigger Theatre groups at high schools elsewhere in Limestone County. But with five complete plays under their belt and ground-level support from school principal Matt Taylor, West Limestone’ s department already has created a pretty durable culture for itself.
That fact’ s evident at a recent dress rehearsal for One Stoplight Town, a play that marshals the full effort of all 30 or so of the department’ s
Photos by Benjamin Bullard
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