Ms. Marianne Stewart, a theater and English teacher at Cypress High, has been teaching in the Anaheim Union High School District for 18 years. She earned her Bachelor’s degree as well as her teaching credential at the University of California, Irvine. Her current artist inspiration is David Bowie.

Stewart, because she loves reading and writing poetry, became an English teacher. She also chose to teach theater because she enjoys storytelling and writing stories. The students in her theater class always give her a good laugh. Stewart also shared that the best thing about being a teacher is helping students figure out how to do something that they want to do. “It’s just the best, most satisfying thing… helping someone make something that wasn’t there before appear, or making their idea become real… it’s really fun,” Stewart said.

Ms. Stewart’s room neighbor at school, Ms. Sharon Coffee, met Ms. Stewart when they ran into each other as she moved into her room for the first time. Coffee said that Ms. Stewart’s best qualities are her kindness and her positive attitude. “She is very, very kind. She is always willing to help me out and she’s always so positive,” Coffee stated.

Theater director, Senior Ryan Lee, worked with Ms. Stewart to decide who played each role in the school play. They also work together to decide which actors have good chemistry with each other. He said that working as a theater director can be stressful mainly because of the process that he and Ms. Stewart go through with choosing actors for their roles. Lee mentioned that Stewart’s best quality is that she is “kind and cool”. He said that she spends so much of her time helping theater, after-school rehearsal, and pizza parties, which he really appreciates.

Stewart mentioned that her theater students have been working on the upcoming Brothers Grimm school play since the previous school year. She explained that last school year, the students presented plays that they wanted to produce, then chose one as a class so that they knew who the directors would be before school ended. She stated that casting for the play began the second week of school this year. She added a note to those going to see the play saying, “Get ready… we’re going to ruin your favorite fairy tales… so we’re sorry!”