Middle school is an experience no individual understands or enjoys. 

I look back at my middle school years and can’t help but shudder. The awkward pre-teen stage, a transition from elementary school to the big bad trenches of high school, is a collection of memories no student or adult alike prefers to ponder on. 

However, Vineyard Junior High (VJH) has more to offer than the average classes and monotone lifestyle. 

Jenna Vandegrift is the theatre director at VJH, a position she fought hard and long to attain and keep throughout the years. During the 2019 – 2020 school year, the program was launched into the community, offered to both seventh and eighth graders, as VJH was a junior high at the time. 

All kids who auditioned were cast in the first production, and they performed “Alice@Wonderland,” produced by Pioneer Drama Services, in January of 2019. Vandegrift then shot for the stars and began rehearsals for “Peter Pan Jr.,” produced by Musical Theatre International (MTI). 

However, when tragedy struck and COVID ripped through the world, schools shut down, and Vandegrift once again scrambled to save her new program. She managed to record and produce an eight-minute production of “Peter Pan Jr.,” a string of videos recorded by three remaining cast members. 

The following year, Vandegrift managed to continue through Distance Learning, recording two productions, a play and a musical, all through video calls. She extended a valuable sense of joy to her students, all stuck at home and isolated in their bedrooms. They had the rare opportunity to look forward to something at the end of the school day. 

During the 2021 – 2022 school year, when students were allowed back on campus, Vandegrift faced another dilemma. No productions were allowed to be performed inside, due to the health risks COVID still presented. She persisted, and she held “The Enchanted Bookshop”, produced by Pioneer Drama Services, outside in the lunch shelter. She planned her musical, “OZ!”, produced by the same company, to be performed similarly, with dances carefully coordinated on slanted stairs. 

However, VJH’s administration finally gave the go-ahead to move inside, and “OZ!” was staged in the multi-purpose room (MPR), which would be soon seen as the theatre, during April 2022. 

Since that monumental achievement, Vandegrift has been able to put on five more productions, three plays and two musicals, giving so many students the gift of theatre. 

A legacy of six years, all carried out by one woman and a class of students. So many have been touched by her career in the classroom, where she teaches the basics of English and History. However, through her beautiful program, Vandegrift has been able to cure the ins and outs of middle school angst. 

Many don’t know how dedicated Vandegrift is to her program, a program she built from the ground up. Having only been paid last year, a long fought battle for equity in the workplace, Vandegrift has persevered through all challenges and achievements. 

As her daughter, I have been able to witness firsthand her unique process, and have observed her true commitment to hundreds of middle school students, people she loves with her whole being. 

From creating costumes on our dinner table to planning out set design at my grandparents house, from choreographing hundreds of dances in our kitchen to preparing for each rehearsal on our couch, my mom is not only a mastermind, a genius. She is one of the best teachers, people, and role models I know. 

I will forever cherish our expeditions to thrift stores as we try to scrounge up enough material and money to costume fifty kids. I will always remember choreographing the songs over and over again, recording them over and over again, just so her kids could watch me and my mom (mainly my mom) dance on our tiled floors. 

Singing in the car on road trips, sweeping the stage on breaks and weekends, striking the set with LOHS Drama Department alumni, these are things I will always remember. 

Because my mom, a theatre kid, is raising me, a theatre kid. And she has taught me everything I know. 

Vandegrift is a one-of-a-kind, legendary and spectacular woman. And her program, built for me and my brother, is something I will always cherish and love for the rest of my life. 

To her students, past and present, I know you love her as much as I do. And I hope you continue to experiment in the world of theatre. 

And to my mom, I love you to the moon and back, and thank you forever for this beauty you have brought to planet Earth. 

You make the world better, always.