Walt Whitman High School

Whitman Drama is an award-winning high school drama department directed by theater professional Christopher Gerken. Each year, the organization produces a fall musical featuring accompaniment by a student pit orchestra, a winter play, and a student-directed talent show. Additionally, the department hosts workshops and student-managed theater projects. In 2012, Whitman Drama once again sponsored an evening of student directed one-act plays. The home of the theatre program, the Daryl Shaw Auditorium, holds 1,200 seated audience members. Whitman Drama is structured very much like a conservatory program. The department's primary focus is on the process of artistic development rather than the end-product. Students are responsible for ALL aspects of theater production. They participate in multiple theater components — everything from on-stage performance to design to technical and production management. The organization has an annual Student Producer, annual Student Stage Manager, annual Student Technical Director, and assistants to these positions who change per production. It strives to promote intelligence, commitment, diversity and an understanding of the human condition by applying techniques based in realism. Whitman Drama especially emphasizes student involvement and ownership. The program is based in Bethesda, Maryland.