Do-It-All-Dodge! Jenks High School’s New Stage Makeup Teacher
By Joesi Soto
Last year, many of the teachers in our theatre department resigned, and multiple great new teachers stepped up and joined our department. Allison Dodge moved from Owasso to Jenks to become Jenks High School’s new stage makeup teacher and has become loved and intertwined in our department. Since the beginning of this school year, she’s done stage management, directed The Crucible play, stagecraft, and stage makeup for our department.
At Owasso, Dodge did it all! Managing and teaching stagecraft, while also coaching their debate team, she was doing four teachers’ jobs for the price of one. It was stressful but fulfilling to take on such a big position. Soon enough, the workload became too much to handle. So, she decided to come to Jenks even though she took a pay cut of nearly ten thousand dollars.
When interviewing Ms. Dodge, I went in expecting to hear hardships and struggles from being new in a tight-knit department, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. She explained how welcoming the teachers are to her. Even though she had a pay cut moving to Jenks, she couldn’t be happier with where she is now.
She hadn’t planned to become a teacher and isn’t certain she’ll teach for the rest of her life. She originally went to school for performing arts, trying to become an actor. However, she fell into the stage management and arts line of work.
Both Jeannie Boudiette and Cody Davis have been in our department for over a decade, watching people come and grow and the department change. Boudiette sat in for Dodge’s interview,
“It was supposed to be 30 minutes, we were in there for an hour and a half. We listened to her talk for hours,” said Boudiette.
Dodge brought pages and pages of previous work and talked about her stage designs, lighting, and directing. She led the conversations and immediately became the first choice for the position.
When there was no one to direct The Crucible, a play about witches around the time of the Salem witch trials, Dodge offered to take it on. She knew no one in our department, yet handled the directing, makeup, and aided with stagecraft.
“She has this magnetic personality that makes you want to collaborate with her,” said Davis.
Whenever Dodge speaks, people are inclined to listen. She’s loud and bold with a sweet voice and welcomes anyone and everyone into her conversations. She’s a fantastic listener and has helped so many people get out of their shells in her class and find a place in the theatre department.
Though she’s been a stage makeup and stagecraft teacher, her true passion is directing and stage management. She went to school to become an actor, but found her way to directing and found a true passion for it.
“It’s very easy for me to have a design concept, I love serving the text,” said Dodge.
Dodge doesn’t struggle with creating sets that are both beautiful and text-accurate. During The Crucible, she used different creative techniques, like keeping certain cast members on stage during most of the show. She explained that these characters stayed on stage because they would be the ones who later died in the show.
She is clearly passionate about theatre, wanting to go back to school to get a master’s degree in fine arts. However, she mentioned that she’s comfortable with where she is now and doesn’t know when she’ll go back to school.
