WILMINGTON — Robin Hayden, who has taught the arts at St. Elizabeth High School for the past three decades, will have the spotlight turned on her on April 27. She will receive the Benedictine Spotlight Award prior to the school’s production of “The Addams Family.” The award recognizes and celebrates a member of the St. Elizabeth community who has made significant contributions to the arts through professional achievement and community service or both.
There will be two presentations. The first is 5 p.m. at the St. E Center at a mixer. It will include guests and reflections, along with refreshments. A brief, more formal presentation will take place in the Benedictine Performing Arts Center at 6:45, followed by the play.
Former St. Elizabeth High School principal Shirley Bounds said some alumni and guests from the Delaware Theatre Company will attend, as will state Rep. Sherry Dorsey Walker, who will present a legislative proclamation. Dorsey Walker is an alumna of St. Elizabeth.
Hayden’s career at the school began in 1993 as an English teacher, “most likely in the magical Room 206, where students find themselves drawn to her passion, positivity and encouragement,” the playbill reads. According to the school, Hayden’s own words have guided her work. They are, “Learning can and should be fun.”
Early in her tenure, she offered her students a platform for their own original poetry, short stories and sketches in The Elizabethan, the school’s literary magazine that she moderated.
For many years, Hayden’s students recorded “The Passion of the Christ” for the Palm Sunday broadcast of Catholic Forum, the Diocese of Wilmington’s weekly program. She directed her students in the annual Shakespeare Festival, introducing students to “the possibilities of interpretation in Shakespeare and allowing them to explore the social and emotional connections to the own lives as they portrayed characters such as Katherine in the “Taming of the Shrew” or Mercutio in “Romeo and Juliet,” according to the school.
In 2002, Hayden organized a field trip to the Delaware Theatre Company for a student matinee performance of “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder, and the students were offered a creative writing project by the DTC. That resulted in the original play “This Town.” St. Elizabeth students have continued to participate in the Delaware Young Playwrights Festival.
Tickets to the show can be purchased, if available, at www.steschools.org/the-arts.
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