Laura Darce

After moving to Texas 20 years ago from Lake Charles, LA, Laura Darce is one of the 18 new teachers joining us this year. She studied at McNeese State University and has spent her 23 years teaching at Washington Marion Magnet High School, Shepton High School, and The Colony High School before becoming our new tech theatre teacher on campus.  

Wingspan: How have your first few weeks been?

Darce: “They’ve been great. It’s a great facility and the students are great, and so bueno.” 

Wingspan: How is our campus different from other schools you’ve taught at?

Darce: “I taught at Shepton for 19 years, and it was just a 9th and 10th grade campus. It’s different in that it’s all years of high school, which is good for me because I feel like I continue to grow with the students instead of passing them on to somebody else at Plano West.”

Wingspan: Why did you decide to become a teacher?

Darce: “I don’t know, I don’t think I ever thought about doing anything else. I have a family with a lot of teachers, and I kind of always just wanted to be a teacher. I didn’t know what I wanted to teach- I thought I wanted to teach English, and then I was like oh no, there’s theatre, so I went that way.”

Wingspan: Why did you decide to pursue a career in theatre?

Darce: “Well of course, theatre is fun, and you get to know your students a lot better than you would in an English class. So you develop communities and you get to see students from the beginning of their journey and then stay friends with them and see them go on to do great, and maybe not so great, things along the line, so it’s more of a community.”

Wingspan: What are you most excited about for this year?

Darce: “Probably COVID going away. I’m most excited to see what we can accomplish in a pandemic.”

Wingspan: What is the most challenging part of your job, regardless of recent events? 

Darce: “The most challenging part of my job is probably still making sure that I can maintain enough time with my own family- my son and my husband. So that’s probably the biggest challenge, is making sure that I have a work-life balance.”

Wingspan: What’s the most challenging part because of recent events?  

Darce: “Mental sanity. No, it’s hard to make connections with kids that you’re not seeing face-to face. So I think just making connections is probably the hardest thing.” 

Wingspan: What is the most fun part of your job? 

Darce: “I don’t know, everything! I like to create things. So I think the most fun thing is to see when you guys create things. Especially when somebody is like ‘I’m not creative’ and then they turn in this amazing design, and I’m like are you crazy? So the most fun is when I see students achieve more than they thought they would.” 

Wingspan: What was one of your proudest moments in teaching?

Darce: “I guess I’m really proud to see several of the students that I’ve taught from the beginning on, that have gone on to achieve broadway star status, or television or movie actors. So that’s rewarding to see that hey, maybe I did make a difference.” 

Wingspan: What hobbies or interests do you have outside of school?

Darce: “I love to travel, I’ve been all over the world. I really like seeing other places. When there’s no pandemic, I go to New York a lot, so I really enjoy seeing shows. And I have a lot of friends that I just like hanging out with. So travel and hanging out with friends are my hobbies.” 

Wingspan: If you could have any other job besides being a theatre teacher, what would you want to be? 

Darce: “I’m trying to think of jobs that make money- no I’m just kidding. Maybe a director- a professional director.” 

Wingspan: What do you hope to achieve this year? 

Darce: “Well, being new to Liberty, I don’t like to jump in and be like ‘We’re changing everything!’ So I hope by the end of the year, that I’ve have kind of made things a little more my own around here. And I guess my goal for this year would be to increase my numbers for next year, for the program to get bigger.”