Monster School is one of West High Theatre’s most popular series of productions at least among teachers and young students. It is once again being performed this November 6th and 7th, The 4th in the series has been released and it is called “The Legend of Pyrate Gold.”

A former West student started it about four years ago when David Block assigned a project in his Advanced Acting class. The project was to do something theatrical that also had a community service aspect. So Moises Hernandez decided that he would perform small skits with puppets to elementary kids. In these little skits Moises would talk to his puppet about how to deal with everyday situations.

But then he wanted to expand it. “He came to me with the idea, that it might be fun to do a show for young kids, very young kids, kindergarten, preschool kids that involved puppets and would have maybe have a community service element to it, so he and I worked together on developing that concept,” said Block, his teacher and director, about just how Monster School came to be. When they performed the show they didn’t expect to get much, but it was a big hit, and Moises got to see his success because he was in the original cast as Billy, a kind monster.

You might ask what kind of guy this kid was who wanted to do so much for the community. “You mean Moises, I did! He is hilarious and he’s actually a Muppet, he is super cool and I really like him. He’s awesome”, said Holly Burns a student who was friends with the creator and acted in the 3rd and will be in the 4th production.

So far the shows have dealt with how to deal with anger, bullying, self-esteem and accepting other people the way they are. “Oh yeah, Monster School 2 especially was about accepting people for their differences, and you know not discriminating against people for how they look and they act. It’s helped me.

So, I think it also helped the children we showed that to”, said Cara Pierson, who played Mr. Splunk in the 2 show, which went to Scotland. Block and Holly agreed saying that they think it has benefited the children and they hope it continues on.

So come out and support Monster School November 6th at 6:30 and the 7th at 2:30, 4:30 and at 6:30. As Block simply puts it “Come to Monster School, it’s the school that’s cool, it’s fun there”, and don’t say you are too old “Come see the show… it’s going to be great and even if you’re like a high schooler you’d still enjoy it!” says Holly. “Go Monster School!” added Cara.