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Miami Palmetto High School senior Caroline Wilburn says drama and student council are her two main school activities outside of academics.
“They take up the majority of my time,” she says.
She’s acted in the school plays and musicals since she joined drama. There haven’t been as many in the last three years because of COVID, but she’s been a part of all productions that have been available to the class.
She was a main character in Merrily We Roll Along in her sophomore year.
“It was a great experience,” she says.
Because of the hybrid nature of the 2020-2021 school year with some students and teachers attending in person and others working from home, drama faced additional challenges last school year.
“Last year we did a student directed show,” she says. “Any student could direct a piece.”
The plays were video-taped and edited together in a cohesive piece.
This year, she’s in the ensemble for Sponge Bob the Musical. That’s taken a lot of her time making sets and assembling the student made costumes.
She’s happy being in the ensemble because she played a bunch of different characters. The main stage auditorium isn’t finished yet, so the play is being presented outside the drama classroom.
“Our classroom has a beautiful garage door,” she says. “It’s half inside and half outside. We are encouraging everyone to bring lawn chairs.”
The drama students are recycling a lot of things and using them on the set.
“We have had to get really creative with our set,” she says.
In addition to school productions, drama students perform at competitions. Palmetto usually does very well, and the recent competition was no exception.
“We got six top honors,” she says. “It’s a perfect score. They usually only give out a certain amount of perfect scores the whole day, and we got six.”
She was in two pieces and both received superior scores. She was in the ensemble Bikini Bottom Day from Sponge Bob the Musical. She also acted a duet scene from the play Bad Jews – a dark play about a family.
“I had had some friends who had done a scene from the play a few years ago and my drama teacher suggested it because my friend and I fit the characters very well,” she says.
With the COVID disruptions to school forcing online learning, the drama students learned to do their work on video and learned how to edit those pieces. That experience helped lead Wilburn to decide she wants to go into broadcast journalism.
“My parents watch 60 Minutes every Sunday,” she says. “I would just sit down and watch with them since I was little.”
She has been accepted to the University of Central Florida, Florida International University, Florida State University, University of Florida and the University of Maryland. She’s waiting for a few more acceptances before she makes her decision on which school to attend.
She often helps out at TVP, the Palmetto announcement system and loves it.
“I help with backstage stuff,” she says. “I’m like an honorary member.”
At school, she an officer on the Student Council Board as chief of the senate.
“My specific job is to make sure everyone in the senate is doing their specific job,” she says.
She was the vice president of the Class of ’22 freshman and sophomore years. As a junior she was on the class cabinet. She’s also a member of the Thespians Honor Society.
Wilburn volunteers at St. Louis Catholic Church, mostly at the Festival for the Poor.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
