Last year, PCH said goodbye to the theater director of 20 years, Nicole Voss, who managed dozens of spectacular shows. However, our school has brought in someone who seems to match Voss’s directing talents. Alex Moore has been selected to guide the theater department.
Moore was born and raised in St. Louis, and even watched some Central shows when he attended Mehlville High School in South County. He has been working as a theater director in Osceola county, just outside of Orlando, Florida for about 10 years. While in Florida, he was nominated as an A+ Teacher on Spectrum News 13. For News 13, being an A+ Teacher means being an inspiration to their students and leading them to success. His former students speak highly of him in the segment.
“He’s able to connect with every student and allows us to push ourselves,” former student, Tyler Newton, said in the News13 story.,
Another former student, Brayden Noble, elaborated.
“Instead of just sitting from afar and just watch- ing and then giving you notes, he’ll come and help you and he’ll work with you,” Noble said.
Moore’s connection with his students shine through in the shows he has directed. Moore has over- seen intense shows such as “Dracula” and “The Diary of Anne Frank” while also being able to manage more light- hearted performances like “The Spongebob Musical.”
Moore intends to bring the passion behind his previous shows to Parkway Central as well as modernizing the department to fit the new generation of performers.
“Students need shows that were written after the year 2000 and they need to be shows they’ve seen their friends perform or it needs to be something fun,”
Moore said as he explained his plans for the program. “To get students to stay after school or put in long hours it needs to be something that they want to be a part of and something that they invest in.”
Despite how it seems, Moore intends to keep many things the same, crediting Voss on how well she managed the position before him,
“A lot of the program is very well organized. It’s been run very well for 20 years so a lot of the small day-to-day organization stuff, I just get to continue with and then it’s small changes here and there to help make things a bit more modern or to bring in some different ideas,” he praised.
The modernization of the theater is apparent in the fall show, “The Play That Goes Wrong.” Originally premiering in 2012, the show acts as a play within a play and has done several tours across the UK. The performance is known to be comedic and complicated, which is exactly what Moore wanted. Moore himself loves slapstick comedies like “Tom and Jerry” and the “Three Stooges” and intends to share that humor with his students.
“I chose it because it’s just a chance to come in and laugh at rehearsal and be silly, which is a great way to build those relationships that we get to come in and do really serious work but it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Moore explained.
Beyond reshaping the department (and learning names), Moore’s real goal is to connect with his new students, just as he had in Osceola, by developing a relationship with them.
“Getting to know my students, getting to know more about them, but then also starting to find what their vision of this program is and how they want to see and where they want to see change,” Moore said.
Moore also intends to preserve the diverse community at PCH.
“One of my core beliefs in casting or even choosing shows is that our shows should reflect and look like the community that we serve and should celebrate that diversity,” Moore said. “This is prob- ably the most diverse school that I’ve worked in and a school that I also see does the work to celebrate that. I am really looking forward to, especially choosing future shows, that we can have a diverse opinion of.”
Alex Moore’s passion for the arts and desire to connect with his students, looks to be a good omen for what’s to come. The PCH Theater will be showing “The Play That Goes Wrong” from Nov. 16 to Nov. 18. Perhaps this show will set the tone for Voss’s successor and give a student body a glimpse into his style.
