“The show must go on,” as the theatrical world would say, and that is exactly what the theatre department has done. With Ms. Nancy Chumbley leaving at the end of last year and retiring, the theatre department was in need of a charismatic, exciting teacher. That is exactly what they got.

Mr. Craig Hertle, the new theatre teacher who has directed over one hundred plays, has started the year off to a wonderful start with two upcoming plays ‘The Women of Lockerbie’ and ‘Epic Proportions.’ These are both amazing plays with great contrast of genre. ‘Epic Proportions’ is a laugh-out-loud hilariously witty play, while on the other hand ‘The Women of Lockerbie’ is a serious, very dramatic play that will pull at students’ heartstrings. However, both will be a must-see when they are ready to be performed for the public. Until then though, Mr. Hertle is working very efficiently with the cast of each play.

“His teaching style is great,” freshman Madison Darnell said. “He always makes sure that we are doing what we need to do, but we have some good laughs during class too.”

Many of the students believe there are quite a few differences between Ms. Chumbley and Mr. Hertle.

“One notable difference is play choice,” Darnell said. “Ms. Chumbley picked out plays that were easy to follow and, while having some depth, were very straight forward. This made it easy for us to find where the characters should be and what emotions we should have. However, Mr. Hertle chooses plays that are more complex and requires us to go deeper into the script to find where the characters are going, making it a challenge. But both styles are fun.”

Hertle knew that students would have some adjustments to make going from Chumbley’s style to his.

“She had been here for such a long time, and I am very different from her because any two people will be different,” he said. “So the students getting used to me and my quirky style is very different.”

For many reasons, Mr. Hertle is an extremely qualified, well-respected theatre director and teacher. He has worked as a coordinator for UIL teams in multiple subjects. In fact, one of the reasons he came to Argyle is because of their reputation in UIL. Mr. Hertle has also worked in one act plays, summer camps just to name a few. He has been the assistant director for the Thespian Convention ‘All-State’ show, and since he has taught in four schools, he has been through a variety of difficult situations on stage, and handled them perfectly.

“One time at the state finals, one of my students forgot his lines on stage,” he said. “It was the longest fifteen seconds of my life. But it actually had a happy ending because the rest of the show went so incredibly well that the judge overlooked the mishap and loved the show. We placed first.”

There are many more things happening in Mr. Hertle’s class this year. There are the upcoming plays, and in the spring, One-Act -Play will start.

“We are getting the ball rolling,” Hertle said.

And the students couldn’t agree more.

“We all love Mr. Hertle and really look forward to this school year,” junior Cooper Richter said.