Meet Brittany Huff: the Decatur Drama teacher turning the club around

DECATUR, Ill. (WCIA) — Throughout May, WCIA is highlighting outstanding teachers in our communities. In Decatur, Brittany Huff turned MacArthur High School’s Drama Club around after a slew of challenges that grew during COVID.

During the day, Mrs. Huff is a social studies teacher. When after school rolls around, she puts on her “theater hat” as the Drama Club advisor. She’s breaking students out of their shells and trying something new with them.

“When we came back from the pandemic, we were starting from scratch,” she explained.

That meant working with students with no theater experience, having broken lighting equipment and cleaning out a prop closet.

“Our costumes and our props we found rats had gotten into,” Huff described. “It was just one thing after another.”

It wasn’t always easy, there were points she wasn’t even sure if she wanted to do it anymore.

“But these kids were so excited about it, so I felt like if we’ve got another obstacle we’re going to figure out the next way to overcome it,” Huff said.

The answer? A grant from the Decatur Foundation. It helped turn the club around.

“I feel like I have the ability to help these kids and help them grow not only as students but as people,” she said.

In March, they put on a performance for the first time in five years.

“It was awesome. It was most of their first time on stage. It was a little bare bones compared to some of the other shows, but the kids did awesome and it really gave them a chance to shine,” she said.

From the classroom to the stage, Huff will always be proud of her students.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in my teaching really focusing on caring for the individual first, and then the academic side of the student,” Huff said. “The most important thing for me is that you are a better person when you leave the classroom.”

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