A new face was introduced to the Baltimore School for the Arts’ (BSA) Theatre community this past fall: Nate DeCook, a student at Notre Dame of Maryland University, who is completing the Accelerated Certification in Teaching Program.

DeCook has been assisting in acting classes at BSA since October, observing classes, introducing new warmups and exercises, and bringing something special to the Theatre Department. 

“He’s really chill and he tries really to understand us, which always makes a better work environment. He has a bunch of fun new games that really help us step out of thinking and step out of our normalcy, which is great because as a sophomore I feel like sometimes it gets a little routine-ish after a full year of doing everything [in acting classes],” said sophomore acting student Shiloh Hopkins.

“I think it’s really great that he’s here to learn, and he’s actually taking the thing that the artists are doing and fitting it in his own way and bringing a new vibe to it,” added another sophomore actor, Bailey Dandridge.

DeCook is from Holland, Michigan. He then moved to Indiana during university, then New York. But the reason he ended up in Baltimore has less to do with education or work.

“I started dating someone who lived in Baltimore. She still does,” DeCook explained. “And so I looked for programs down here that would help me get my [teaching] certification. And I found Notre Dame, Maryland, and they had exactly what I was looking for, which is one year to get my education courses out of the way.”

DeCook has had a passion for both teaching and acting since high school, knowing he wanted to make a career out of either one he could.

“I originally thought that I wanted to teach theatre starting my junior year of high school. And then in my senior year of high school, I realized that if I didn’t take a shot at being an actor myself, then I would go into teaching high school kind of bitter that I never tried,” said DeCook.

Although he has experience teaching elementary school, DeCook still prefers teaching high school.  

“I like that high schoolers are more ready to take on challenges and I think it easier for me to connect with people that are in their teen years,” he said.

DeCook ended up going to the University of Evansville in Indiana and got his Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre there. “And then I went to New York straight after.”

DeCook lived in New York for 7 years. “I worked in restaurants, paid my bills. And then most of the theatre I did, I ended up doing at this small theater called The Flea. They had a resident acting company there that I auditioned for and I made it in,” said DeCook.

“The biggest [play] I did there was a Taylor Mac world premiere, which was a great opportunity, but right after opening night, we had to shut it down for covid.”

As one of the two semesters of internship that are required for the Notre Dame course, DeCook completed one semester teaching theatre at Baltimore City College.

“It was a different vibe [from BSA] where, you know, most of my students there were there to get their fine arts credit,” said DeCook.

“I think what’s great about teaching theatre and drama in general is that a lot of time it’s very structured goofing off. If you can tap into people’s desire to play around and have fun and get them to feel comfortable… most people have a lot of fun doing it.”

Although many of the things that DeCook has seen in the acting classes at BSA are similar to what he learned in college, there are still discoveries to be made.

“Getting to sit in and watch [theatre faculty] Becky [Mossing] and Paul [Reisman] and all the other teachers, it reminded me all this stuff I’ve learned at one point but like, I’ve kinda forgotten,” said DeCook.

DeCook is appreciative of the time that he’s gotten to spend at BSA this semester.

“I think being here has definitely reminded me of the passion that I have for a lot of this work, getting to see what everyone’s learning, and diving into the craft and everything.”

Now that the semester is over, acting students will say goodbye to DeCook and wish him good luck on his journey to becoming a theatre teacher.

“I’m gonna miss him when he goes,” said Hopkins.

After finishing off his internship program at BSA this semester, he will graduate, and then start looking for jobs in Baltimore City Schools.

To contact this writer, email Muse Newspaper at musebsa@bsfa.org.

Featured photos by Kenya Price for The Muse.