Proud Naz alum Aileen O’Carroll is very excited to teach where she went to high school. She joined the Fine and Practical Arts Department at the beginning of this school year as the new Acting and Speech teacher.
It was in her own high school acting and speech classes and her experiences participating in the musicals and plays that O’Carroll found her passion for theater. Her former teacher Kim White helped her grow out of her comfort zone when she was a teen and since then, she has always followed her passion for theater.
O’Carroll decided she wanted to teach theater because she loves to perform and direct, but she also loves sharing that joy and experience with students rather than always being the one on stage.
Her biggest goal this year is to build the theater program and make drama an activity in which any Naz student can participate. She said, “I just want to make sure it is inclusive and everyone can feel like they can be a part of it.”
After graduating from Nazareth, O’Carroll followed in her family’s footsteps to Marquette University, where she earned her undergraduate degree in theater and public relations. At Marquette, she was involved in many student activities, which included student leader government, theater, and first-year student initiation. After Marquette, earned her Master’s in Theater and Speech Education at Lewis University.
While attending Marquette and Lewis University, O’Carroll directed and choreographed shows in both Milwaukee and Chicago. She enjoyed the opportunity that it provided her. She said it was really great to get community theater experience before moving into teaching theater in a school setting.
In 2020, O’Carroll took her first teaching position at Barrington Middle School. There, she taught Drama and Musical Theater, sponsored the Drama Club and directed the play and musical. “It was a really great beginning of my career,” she said.
Now that the school year has begun, O’Carroll is not only busy in the classroom, she is also very involved in the community outside of school, too. She is a part of the Illinois Theatre Association, where actors, directors, choreographers, and other theater artists collaborate. The Illinois Theater Association also conducts the Illinois High School Theatre Festival, which she likes to help plan.
O’Carroll is excited to help her students out of their comfort zones in the same way she experienced back when she was a Naz student. She looks forward to many years ahead – and who knows, maybe one day, her successor will be one of her own students, too.
