Published September 29, 2025
BY CHOICE MUIVAH
Theater Tech has expanded from club to classroom by introducing a year-long Monterey Peninsula College dual-enrollment class called Stagecraft taught on Carmel High School’s campus.
Jeff McGrath, teacher of Stagecraft and adviser of Theater Tech, explains that the class itself provides an opportunity to build on an understanding of what students already do in Theater Tech club.
“With the class, we get to understand everything that has to do with pulling that curtain in and why it’s important,” says McGrath.
The CHS Theater Tech club manages any technical and background help for all performances at the performing arts center and will also be operating on the same stage as Stagecraft. As an MPC dual-enrollment class, students take the course outside of school hours and receive college credit while in high school.
Adviser Jeff McGrath supervises sophomores Cooper Schmidt, Calvin Herendeen-Hill and Christian Beltran (from left) as they work on building the set for Little Women during Stagecraft. photo by CHOICE MUIVAH
Unlike other MPC courses that only last one semester, Stagecraft spans two semesters, the first being Introduction to Theater, to lay a foundation of what theater is through the history of plays and to mainly focus on its academic side. Next semester will be far more hands-on as students will begin actively working backstage and on any elements that help put on a production.
Senior Aspen Godsey expresses her enthusiasm for Stagecraft and how it allows for everyone to be put into different roles in theater.
“It gets them involved and shows them everything that there is in it and everything that they can do,” Godsey says.
McGrath says his objective is to take the enthusiasm and hard work of the people involved in Theater Tech Club and focus on providing a more in-depth education with an added academic aspect and a more experiential component which otherwise wouldn’t be possible with the limits of Theater Tech being a club.
“It’s going to be a really good opportunity for students who are interested in theater, both on stage and behind the scenes,” says Lillian Mendez, a co-director and CHS 2025 grad, sharing McGrath’s excitement.
With over 20 years of teaching college theater at Hartnell College in Salinas under his belt, McGrath notes his excitement for the class as he explains he had been pushing to teach an MPC dual-enrollment class on theater since he was hired in 2019.
