Written By: Miles Watts, Staff Writer, and Ariel Connell, Staff Writer in Training
PASSIONS: Mr. Dean returns to the arts as Poly’s new theater teacher.
Holding the door open for students each period dressed, Mr. Dean greets everyone with a friendly smile. After Mr. Markermorse’s retirement last year, he was chosen to take over as the new theater teacher. After exclusively teaching Chinese for six years at North, he returns to the arts at Poly.
His love for theater was first ignited during his freshman year of high school when he saw his school’s rendition of the musical “On the Town.” Previously, in elementary school, he had played a part in some plays but the interest did not truly ignite until high school. He was in his school’s band, but by watching the performance, he became enthralled with the visual art, later taking a theater class at his school the following year while continuing with his music career. “I took my first theater class my sophomore year of high school, and continued that through high school and college,” Mr. Dean remarks. Throughout his education, he had a desire to become a theater teacher despite studying Chinese at the same time. Due to his interest in Chinese, he taught both when he first started instructing students. However, for the last six years, he has only taught Chinese. Now he is only teaching theater. Despite only teaching one of his passions, he feels “there’s always theater to do, and so I’ve done theater around [here]. It’s not like it leaves you”. Despite being a larger adjustment, especially since it is a much bigger time commitment, he is ready to jump back into teaching theater.
Throughout his childhood, Mr. Dean lived locally here in Riverside, and then later went to RCC for his associate’s degree. He then transferred to Weber State University in Ogden, Utah for musical theater. After he graduated from there, he enrolled in the University of Utah and received an undergraduate degree in Chinese and a master’s degree in language instruction. During his time at the university, he was able to study abroad in China for a summer. In the last couple of years, he has gone back to school for a master’s in the fine arts and a degree in theater education. “It was always something I wanted to do (receive a master’s degree in fine arts), even before I was going back into the theater classroom,” Mr. Dean remarks, and he has been learning through a program at the Mississippi University for Women (it is a co-education school despite the name). That is an online program and he has spent his last two summers there in Mississippi. Being a very educated person, Mr. Dean certainly has the credentials to run the theater program at Poly efficiently.
One of Mr. Dean’s goals this year as a new theater director is to allow students to showcase different eras of theater, whether it be classical or contemporary. “I wanna provide students with the opportunities to explore different types of theater.” By doing a wide variety of shows, he wishes to expose them to various kinds of theater. Despite having a preference for older shows, he finds that he learns a lot from his students about newer performances. Mixing his classical preferences with the students’ contemporary interests creates a distinct and stylized performance, no matter how old the show is. Despite having big shoes to fill after Mr. Markermorse’s retirement, Mr. Dean is more than willing and prepared, to step in and become the new theater director of Poly High.
Despite the challenges of theater, Mr. Dean is more than prepared to take them on. Poly welcomes you and we wish you the best, both on stage and in the classroom!