The curtain is closing for theater teacher Stephanie Winters as she will be leaving the school at the end of the year as she moves to Nashville with her family. Winters is moving the last week of June, but while her teaching career is being put aside, she will be returning to the stage as an actor.

“It is nice to take a break from teaching and go back into acting on stage,” Winters said. “I am excited because I only get to work on acting during the summer and with this I am going to be able to do it full time and dive into it fully.”

Winter’s announcement left her students with mixed emotions.

“I feel sad that she is leaving,” sophomore Katie Mark said in a text message. “But I am so happy that she gets to pursue acting again, and I think this is a good opportunity for her.”

Being able to spend more time with her family is one of the perks that will come with the transition to Nashville.

“I am going to miss my students,” Winters said. “But I am going to least miss the 14 hour days where I have to work through long technical problems and having to miss time with my family.”

But in order to spend more time with her family, she temporarily will be spending less time with her spouse.

“My husband left and he is going to stay there permanently,” Winters said. “So I am going to be a single mom for the time being so that is a process in itself. We have already put a contract down on the house in Nashville, so we still need to sell the house, but it is going to be a lot of cleaning from this point on to get ready to sell the house.”

Although she is looking ahead to her future, Winters is doing what she can to leave the theater program is good hands.

“There has been a lot of tears and some “Why’s” but they have been really good,” Winters said. “Some have said that they are not going to do theater next year which I am trying to stop that because I hate for the department to wither away. So, my final statement to the kids would be that the department is important, and to make it better than what it was when I was here.”