When theater instructor Erin Coulter joined the Hill School faculty in 2018, neither she nor any of her colleagues, not to mention teachers across America, could foresee the prolonged educational impact of the current pandemic or the way they'd have to adjust to a daunting new reality radically.

After spring break in the 2020 academic year, Erin taught virtually via Zoom. Last September, students returned to Hill for in-person learning, accompanied by strict safety measures, smaller class sizes, outdoor classrooms, limited co-mingling with other grades, and so much more.

With the academic year now almost completed, Hill clearly is deserving of an A-plus in keeping students, faculty, and staff healthy and truly happy from an extraordinary year unlike any in its 95-year history.

The year has been particularly satisfying for Colter, despite being a theater specialist essentially without a formal theater. Then again, as Shakespeare once wrote, "All the world's a stage." Substitute "Hill campus" for "stage," which essentially sums up how Coulter managed to produce a wide variety of dramatic and comedic opportunities for her third to eighth-grade students to thrive.

"I came into the school year with a certain sense of anxiety," Coulter said. "But once I forgot about all those (pandemic related) things, there were a lot of great opportunities to make it all work."

Take the eighth grade. In a normal year, the school's oldest students have put on popular plays and shows, from The Wizard of Oz to Fiddler on the Roof. Several weekend performances always play to packed audiences filled with family and friends.

But not this year. Instead, Coulter found a play that embraced the year's challenges - Alice: an Immersive Experience, adapted by Chris Hayward from C.S. Lewis' Alice in Wonderland. The production was staged in several different places on campus, including an opening scene at the barn at the Dornin Science Center off The Plains Road.

With a small audience from each class looking on, a rabbit ran into the building and then scampered out, with the children following it to several other nearby staging areas. The audience encounters the Cheshire Cat, goes to a tea party, visits the Queen's Court, and on and on. It's a 30-minute production witnessed in the end by every student in the school.

Seventh graders for many years have performed their version of St. George and the Dragon, and the tradition continued in 2021, with a twist. This performance also was staged outdoors during the second chilly week of January, again with other classes watching.

While family and friends could not enjoy productions in person, performances were videotaped by Hill alum Jay Hubbard and made available to one and all. Coulter said there initially was some disappointment from some students looking forward to emulating past classes that performed on stage.

"Then I described what we were going to do," Coulter said. "When they heard the plan, it was 'oh my gosh, let's do it.' It was something new, unique, and cool. We made it special in a different way. It was a little exhausting but also very exciting.

"I'm just grateful I had the experience and confidence to put together the things we've done. You're dealing with chaos and also getting them to use their imagination and not be frightened by the unknown. They were taking a risk, but it all paid off."

At Hill, with its model of Total Education, all students participate in a strong academic and co-curricular program, which includes theater, music, art, and sports.

Taking risks, or stretching oneself, happens daily at Hill. Students participate in programs in which they have a natural interest or passion and do some things that don't come as easily. Through both of these types of experiences, they build character traits such as confidence, determination, and humility, to name a few, that help them get started on the path to being happy, successful adults.

Coulter's teaching and theatrical experience paid off as well. She grew up in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the daughter of two educators, and majored in theater at Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh. After graduating, she went to Los Angeles to work developing film scripts. After several years, she moved back east to be closer to her own family. There she got a Master's degree and served in the Teach For America corps, an established service program that landed her in several New York City public schools. She taught fourth grade for two years, as well as yoga, dance, and theater.

She also worked on off-Broadway productions, took time off to travel the country, and spent a year as a tutor for a Hill School family. That's how she heard about the opening for a theater instructor at Hill and, she said, "It was a great fit.

"I love to produce and direct theater," she said, adding that she is starting up a small Middleburg-based theater company—she's calling it Tagragg Productions—to eventually put on shows on summer weekends, most likely starting in 2022.

She'll continue to direct the traditionally rich theater program at Hill, hopefully back utilizing a real stage next year. She's also properly proud of her students for what they accomplished this past year.

"When they're adults, these children will brag about how they did Alice or St. George and the Dragon," she said. "They did it in such a creative way and took so much pride in it. There was a lot of problem-solving, but they came up with some great ideas and they figured it out. As a teacher, my goal is not to be the only idea-maker."

This past year at Hill, that definitely was mission accomplished.