Extracurricular activities, such as theater, often involve plenty of commitment – especially outside of school time. Being involved in various extracurriculars, however, can also cause overlapping time schedules and strained time management.
Drama and English teacher Erin Southard explained how during her time in school, she was one of the students who struggled to pick between theater or sports.
“In high school, I had to choose between sports and theater, and I ended up doing sports earlier in my years, but when I was a senior, I fully focused on theater once I didn’t need sports to graduate,” Southard said.
Freshman Hanna Lee similarly spoke about how her and her friend’s involvement in JV basketball differently affected their rehearsal schedules for the 2025 fall production.
“I joined when I was doing the play, but it was near the end of the play, so I only missed a few rehearsals. I wouldn’t be able to do volleyball like Chloe (Cihak). She wanted to do the play, but she couldn’t because she has volleyball,” Lee said.
Besides sports and theater, other extracurricular activities students may have to balance, such as marching band, can also hinder students’ abilities to participate in theater. Senior Sal Cardenas-Mina emphasized how their marching band schedule interferes with theater rehearsals schedules as well.
“Marching band usually, for this year, was Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays in between 4-6, and I know a lot of the rehearsal times for the play we had in fall was also at the same time and also on Saturdays,” Cardenas-Mina said.
Other than heavy-commitment times, extracurriculars including the SLI program can stand in the way of occasional rehearsals on Saturdays. Senior Nathan Rodriguez Calixto expressed how he struggled with balancing SLI and attending rehearsals in his earlier high school years.
“You have to be there (theater rehearsals) almost every day after school for two hours, sometimes even on Saturdays – that’s really conflicting with my STEM schedule,” Calixto said. “In sophomore year in STEM, they have more Saturday sessions, and I found it difficult because Saturday rehearsals would often conflict with the Saturday session, so I had to choose between one or the other.”
Though extracurricular activities may affect how well students can attend theater rehearsals, students and teachers are looking for solutions to help them be able to participate in both while minimizing time conflictions. Lee explained how she attempted to balance both basketball and theater at the same time.
“My role wasn’t that big, so they didn’t need me often,” Lee said. “I just thought about what scenes they would perform on certain rehearsal days, and then I just thought about if I knew the scene well enough to not be there. Then I went to basketball instead.”
Calixto feels the drama department can restructure their rehearsals to minimize down time, though he noted it could be challenging.
“(They can) better organize, better plan out everything to make sure that the people called are the people called, to make sure everything is specific because a lot of times in theater, there are people called who just sit around and do nothing, who didn’t need to be called,” Calixto said. “I feel like the theater department and the person in charge of the theater department could do a lot to reduce a lot of those people who are just sitting around doing nothing.”
Southard believes students should prioritize whichever they want to attend, either their extracurricular or theater rehearsals.
“It’s thinking about what is the level of commitment you’re willing or able to make, and you can’t choose both – being on a high-demand sports team and the lead of the show,” Southard said. “You have to make a choice. Ultimately, which one is best for you, and I don’t think people should be upset by that choice they make.”