Bored Teachers, Excited Students at DPAC
Blog By: Shia Raine Edwards
Hello! My name is Shia Edwards and I’m a Performing Arts Ambassador at DPAC. What that means is, I am a high school student that gets to shadow and assist those who work professionally at DPAC with the perks of being able to see DPAC shows for free. It’s an amazing experience and I’d particularly like to share with you my day as an Ambassador at the Bored Teachers Comedy Tour Performance.
We usually arrive 2 hours before the show so there is enough time to shadow our DPAC staff member. We sign in and make our way up to the beautiful president’s lounge of DPAC. A little later, we have our house management meeting. This is where all volunteers and staff meet to entail what the show will require of them, usually directed more towards the ushers. We also find out who exactly we will be working with. On this go round, I got the great pleasure of working in Guest services. My mentor was trusting of me to carry out many tasks when assisting guests which really made me grasp the concepts of working there. Some tasks I attended to were coat check, first aid, and even special hearing devices for those with hearing deficiencies. There was a great range in foot traffic which took a bit of adjusting to. At the end of my shift, I grabbed a complementary DPAC Ambassador snack and excitedly scurried off to the balcony where the other Ambassadors were seated.
At first, I was a bit nervous to see the show because I thought I might be insulted as to how we students, and teenagers would be portrayed but everything said in the show was true, relatable and absolutely HILARIOUS. The comedians took the audience, filled with teachers of several grades, down a road of laughter and fun. The audience was in total agreement about what the comedians had to say about teacher life and their struggles. There were 4 comedian teachers featured in the show, Devin Siedbold, KC Mack, Ryan Erwin and Leslie Robinson, and each one had a different comedic style. However, each person also brought great energy, so I made sure to follow each one on Instagram in support. I hope their careers continue to soar, because they genuinely produced a great space of real happiness and joyfulness in the room.
At the end of the show, the team of comedians were kind enough to plan a meet and greet for fans to take pictures with them. The line was packed! And I’m not surprised. Although I wish I could’ve stayed to meet them, I continued to the back and signed out. It was another great day as a performing arts Ambassador, and I feel so blessed to be a part of such an amazing community.
