At Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall, theatre students proudly sport letter jackets, which are earned after their sixth show on campus. Although this is perhaps the most obvious symbol that theatre is considered a team sport on campus, it is only the outermost layer of everything going on behind the scenes.
“The thing I want people to understand is how easy it is to love the theatre, step outside your comfort zone, and be a little brave, and to know you have people surrounding you who are there to support you,” says Theatre Director Bekah LaCoste, now in her 11th year at CH-CH. It was Bekah’s passion for theatre that led to the current rhythm of three shows per year, one each trimester.
Bekah works alongside a talented team, including musical director Elana Epstein and tech directors Caroline McNelis, Ericka Berman, Caitlin Coston, and Mike McGillivray. Choreographer Erin Faria also plays a key role in bringing productions to life. Together, they foster a team ethos in every aspect of a CH-CH play, which is immediately evident to anyone who has seen a production. “We are each other’s biggest cheerleaders,” Bekah explains of the ensemble effort. The difference between athletics and theatre, she notes, is that her cast and crew don’t get ten games throughout the season; they have just one championship to aim for… opening night!
This means camaraderie and empathy are inherent to the process. “Every show, we’re diving into someone else’s skin, learning how to be somebody else from the inside,” Bekah says. She then watches this pay dividends, as it helps students with relationships both inside and outside of the theatre. Adds Quinn G. ‘25, Stage Manager for the latest production of Mamma Mia!: “Theater wouldn't be theater without the community. You make friends with people you never thought you would even talk to... Even after the show, you still have those bonds to fall back on. It brings people together in a way that nothing else does.” Bekah sees the way her students step up when a teammate is absent, scrambling to fill in for another character before she even has to ask or jumping in to handle a scene for a peer who is having a hard time.
These tangible benefits spill out of the limelight and filter backstage as well, where the tech team is an equally vital component of the whole. Caroline McNelis, the faculty leader of Tech Team for the winter musical, wanted her students to take ownership of some part of the production, some “footprint” they could be proud of. She then watches the scaffolding of students’ confidence happen in real time, turning the “I can’t” from one day into the “I did it” of the next. As Caroline points out: “You don’t have to be in the spotlight to create it.”
Bekah loves that when the students vote on awards at the end of every show, the Most Valuable Performer and Most Valuable Technician are voted on twice—once by cast members and once by tech. The students have the profound opportunity to choose the winners peer-to-peer. “It’s about them seeing each other,” Bekah says.
For proof of theatre’s impact, look no further than the high number of alumni who return for each current CH-CH production. Perhaps it’s because, as Bekah points out, there’s no end in theatre (you never lose the “championship”), creating a core group who can return time and again. More than that, it’s a testament to the camaraderie and teamwork that endure from their time on campus and to the profound impact of Bekah’s leadership.
Speaking to the team ethos of his experience, Jack L. ‘25 recently said in his Senior Presentation, “I [was] familiar with how to communicate in sports teams but when I first started theater tech, I was amazed by the support and enthusiasm each member put into each production.” He adds, “If I could do one thing I never did, it would be the CH-CH theater play!”
In all the chaos of any show, it’s the invited Dress Rehearsal (with faculty and staff as audience members) that Bekah loves perhaps the most. She hears feedback from teachers who say, “I never knew this kid had it in them,” and can see first-hand the way students show up for each other, for themselves, and for the audience. Bekah, of course, did know; that her cast and tech team have it in them and that their “personalities could come out in this space where they feel brave.” She adds with a laugh, “They feel so much joy that sometimes we have to rein them in.”
At CH-CH, theatre isn’t just about the final bow—it’s about the friendships, confidence, and teamwork that last far beyond the stage.
