To the Class of 2021,

I remember when I met many of you as Freshman in 2017 at the You Can't Take It with You auditions. Others of you accompanied me to the first ever DHS Junior Varsity Fall DTASC Festival to be graced with a DHS team, and pretty much all the rest, I met at the Grease auditions in 2018. Over the next two years we would share some of my favorite moments from my entire teaching career. I was so proud of how seriously you took Our Town, or how committed your work to Beauty and the Beast was. I remember walking into the DTASC awards ceremony in 2019 for the first time with a swagger like we knew we belonged there. I will especially never forget the pride I felt watching every performance of In the Heights because you all brought the highest level of work ethic knowing that in that moment, nothing was more important than entertaining an audience while simultaneously celebrating Immigrant Culture in the style of the great Lin Manuel Miranda.

While the first two and a half years that we got to work together created some of my favorite memories, suddenly the next year and a half created some of my least favorite memories. Still, many of you, put your faith in me, and we even got to perform Almost, Maine Live Streamed during a pandemic. I admire that even in the worst of years, you still couldn't help but feel compelled to create art. It's what makes me know you are my kind of people. So I leave you with the immortal words of Alexander Pope: In everything you do "Act well your part; there all honor lies."

It has been an honor to work and grow with you. Break a Leg.

-Mr. Nelson