A passion for theater has given this Olathe High senior true ‘stage presence’

An Olathe North High School senior with an interest in theater is taking on a huge role in the coming year.

Emily Martin, 17, will lead 125,000 students and theater educators from all 50 states and 13 countries.

Martin was elected to chair the International Thespian Officers board in June, and she worked hard to earn that top spot.

About 5,000 schools worldwide have theater programs registered with the International Thespian Society; 101 are in Kansas and 159 are in Missouri. Each of these schools has a student-run thespian executive board. Martin has served on hers since she was a sophomore.

Each state and country has a governing board as well. Martin was elected to Kansas’ board in January. It was then that she learned about the international board.

Martin said she didn’t know anything about the six elected board members except that they advocate for arts education.

She’s been a leader in her theater department since her freshman year, mostly working behind the scenes, not in the spotlight.

Her impetus to become one of the handful of international officers was personal.

One of her siblings was involved in theater this year, Martin said.

“That was a huge turning point for her academic career, and that was what inspired me and pushed me to apply to be an international thespian officer — seeing the power of arts education in my home and knowing that these are people who really make a difference.”

Julie Cohen Theobald, the executive director of the Educational Theater Association, says it’s exactly this life-changing educational component Martin picked up on that’s the mission of the organization.

“If you look at what employers are looking for, we often hear creativity, communication skills, collaboration, problem-solving, discipline, accountability — all those things that are learned in theater programs,” said Theobald, whose group is based in Cincinnati.

Martin’s job will be to try to get state and national legislators to see theater education that way as well. Not only will she advocate to stop arts funding cuts, she’ll push to increase the number of theater programs in schools.

“Theater is so educational,” Martin said. “You’re reading lines, you’re memorizing them and saying them in front of people on stage — that builds confidence. There’s math and science involved in the technical side of theater.”

She also cites the importance of friendships students cultivate by putting in long hours after school and over the weekend working toward a common goal.

Theobald stresses that about 90 percent of the 2.3 million alumni of the 90-year-old International Thespian Society don’t go on to careers in theater. Training future actors and soundboard techs is not what high school theater is about.

Dustin Pence, the director of theatre at Olathe North, agrees. He’s worked with Martin since she was a freshman and has seen her develop from a good leader into one with a keen sense of empathy and ability to see the bigger picture for individuals and the department.

“It has been fun to have a student who is seeing the department, in some cases, the same way I am,” Pence says. “So, we’ll have a conversation about what we want to do with the department and we’re both thinking along the same lines. That has only increased as she has gotten older.”

It’s this wide-angle view that will serve her as she takes at least a dozen trips over the course of the next year. She’ll attend Arts Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C., and she’ll lead workshops at several state conferences as well.

After high school, Martin hopes be one of the 10 percent of students who does continue in the theater, earning a degree in stage management and creating a career out of what she loves doing.

Pence says she has what it takes.

“She commands leadership, but she commands leadership in a way that people want to be able to follow her,” he said. “’Follow me, let me lead you, let me take you along this way.’”

This story was originally published July 28, 2018 at 12:00 AM with the headline "A passion for theater has given this Olathe High senior true ‘stage presence’."