A crowded principal’s office usually means bad news. But at Bronx Theater High School, Principal Deborah Effinger has an open door policy with her students, meaning students are as much of a fixture as the furniture in her office.

On a typical school day, Effinger is often interrupted by her students who come in just to talk to her or maybe get some sage advice. But she gives her students more than just wisdom. One afternoon last spring, she sat in her chair patiently sewing a hole in the hood of a jacket for one of her students.

“It’s unique,” Effinger says of her relationship with her students. “If they know they can talk to me, it makes them feel a little more protected and at home.”

Bronx Theater opened its doors to students in 2003 with 95 students and is now home to an average of 400 students a year.

Last June, Effinger watched her third class graduate. In 2008, the last year statistics are available, Bronx Theater graduated 78 percent of its students, well above the city average.

It’s partly because of Effinger’s dedication to her students that the school has excelled. Prior to creating Bronx Theater High School, Effinger was producing plays as an assistant principal for Visual and Performing Arts at the former John F. Kennedy High School (now the Kennedy Campus that houses six smaller schools, one of which is Bronx Theater).

“I was happy being an assistant principal,” Effinger said.

Then in 2001, Roundabout Theatre Company, a Manhattan-based performing arts group that was interested in partnering with a public school, approached Effinger. They wanted to create a new high school through a project at New Visions for Public Schools.

“I thought about how motivated kids were [at Kennedy] to come and rehearse,” she said. “We developed a planning committee and a proposal.”

Two years later, they were up and running.

At Bronx Theater, in addition to traditional courses like English and math, students also take classes in acting, costume design, set design, playwriting, performance and theater business. Students learn about how to produce the performing arts, but they also learn how to run a sustainable business centered around them.
The curriculum provides a variety of options for students who have multiple interests.

Andrea Valentine, a senior at Bronx Theater, has always been passionate about acting. “I knew in elementary school I wanted to be an actress,” she said. “When I was in 8th grade I was looking for theater schools. Something about this school, the activities, attracted me. Ms. Effinger is very easy to talk to. This is like my second family.”

This summer, Andrea is directing with Roundabout Theatre and applying to SUNY Purchase and the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

Emily Garcia, a senior, learned about Bronx Theater because her sister was a student. She says the school is an outlet for personal expression.

“The classes here are entertaining,” she said. “People have energy and need to speak and perform. You get that energy out. You let the ideas run free. You meet people of different personalities and different opinions. You learn new things about yourself. You find yourself.”

In addition to acting, students can join the Bronx Theater Repertoire, the school’s dance company that performs twice a year, and participate in the year-end fashion show.

Unlike other performing arts high schools, Bronx Theater does not require students to audition. Instead, preference is given to students who live in the district (District 10), and each year 100 students are accepted through the Department of Education’s lottery system.

Even those without a passion for performing arts get something out of the school, Effinger says. “Anyone would benefit from the school,” she says. “I think there is a place for everyone here. [Students] learn how to run a business and be part of a theater company. There are few places that allow students to be part of a business.”

That goes for teachers too.

Kristin Brown is a math teacher at Bronx Theater. “I liked the idea of the school although I had never done theater,” she said. “The first time I saw a student performance, I knew there was something special going on. You really get to view the students in their element.”

But plays remain the school’s bread and butter. During the 2008-2009 school year, the juniors performed two plays, “The Diary of Anne Frank” and a “Midsummer’s Night Dream.”

Like Brown, Courtney Ferrell teaches math at Bronx Theater, but she also directs plays. “It was amazing [directing the students],” she said. “These kids exceed your expectations. I’m really proud of them and how they formed an ensemble. They understood everyone has a unique contribution. Now they’re friends and they always have each other’s back.”

Each year seniors have the chance to write and direct their own plays. Last year, the seniors produced “Ifunanya,” the story of a Nigerian princess, who despite being betrothed to someone from her village, falls in love with a white artist visiting the country.
Effinger said her students often take on important social issues in their plays.

The play “Sugar Shack,” directed by Kadeem Harris, a 2008 graduate currently on a full scholarship at NYU’s Tisch School, was about big real estate developers coming into a neighborhood and forcing small businesses to close. Another play, “Studio 99,” directed by James Coles (’07), now a junior at City College, focused on anti-smoking messages.

Imani Bland directed “Ifunanya” before graduating in June. She believes she found her calling at Bronx Theater.

“I was really looking for a singing and vocal program,” she said. “I wasn’t really looking for acting. I like acting, but I like directing better. I started writing a play. [The experience] opened my eyes to see all the other things I can do.”

In September, Imani will start her first year at the University of Bridgeport and hopes to become a writer one day.

Like a proud mother, Effinger is proud students like Imani who are fostered and developed at her school. “It’s a safe, warm, and nurturing place,” she said. “It’s not like any school that exists and we like it that way.”