West High Teacher Named Innovator of the Year

West High School teacher Stacey Child-Hutchings has been named the Innovator of the Year by the Utah Advisory Council of Theater Teachers. She began working at Northwest Middle School, and over the 11 years there built a full-time theatre program before she transferred to West High and spent five years as a World Language teacher. She was then asked to take over West High's theatre program. This will be her fifth year as the theatre teacher at West, and she couldn't be happier!

During the 2020-21 school year, Stacey taught half the year remotely. During that time, she advocated the need for continued performances to help keep her students marketable and engaged. They were able to produce MTI's "A Killer Party" 95% remotely. The students filmed at their own homes using their phone cameras, and then the video productions class edited it for performance.

In February, the students were able to attend classes remotely or in person. Stacey then directed the one-act competition piece, "The Terezin Promise," with a very small cast, all masked, and with one remote student which they included as a recorded video. This production also used projections to try to integrate the recorded video of the remote actor.

Their last production was, "Alice in Wonderland." They had four remote actors participate, including the Cheshire Cat. These were again recorded and then played on six different screens during the performances.