Drama teacher Ms. Sabrina Lloyd has only been here for half a year but has already made a visible influence on her students. 

When Ms. Lovell left as the main director of the drama program, the Acting Troupe of Lambert was left without a director, propelling Mr. Wason to step up as both the musical and main director.

By September, Ms. Lloyd stepped in and is presently the main director of ATL along with Mr. Wason. 

Throughout class and after-school rehearsals, Ms. Lloyd brought a vision of expertise and adaptability to the show. 

“You bring all your old work and skills to each production and adapt to everyone,” Lloyd said.

During rehearsals of The Secret Garden, Ms. Lloyd had multiple obstacles brought to her attention: actors needed blocking, sets needed painting and the scissor lift had to be dragged in. As the director, she stepped up and made sure everything was coordinated and ran smoothly.

Before Lambert, Ms. Lloyd spent decades in places all around the country from Illinois to California.

When Ms. Lloyd got her bachelor’s degree in acting from Florida State University, she moved to Chicago and co-founded a theater company called Ground Up Theater. While in this company, she acted, directed, and did most of the show’s production.

An interesting show was when she was a part of “Birds” by Aristophanes. Within this production, the actors rewrote the entire show to be an allegory for the modern world. 

“It’s a super fun show,” Lloyd said. “I would love to do another version of it again.”

By 2008, she had moved to Indiana to pursue a master’s degree in directing. 

After getting her master’s degree, she moved to Los Angeles and became a freelancer for many casting agencies and troupes around the area. She was also a director of the Sacred Fools Theater Company for 10 years. 

She moved to Georgia a year ago and began directing at Lambert in September of 2022.

For her, the culture of the troupe isn’t just a place to act, but a place where someone can find a family.

“That feels like the right two words: sweet and rambunctious,” Lloyd said. “There’s a lot of energy; there’s a lot of enthusiasm. A lot of group spirit and a lot of hard work. Like a family and all of the beauty and discomfort that comes with that.”

Many students show that, despite having only been with Ms. Lloyd for a few months, she creates a comfortable community for students, with many eating in her room and constantly coming up to her desk to strike up conversations.

She also prioritizes checking in with her students, as she believes that students here at Lambert and in ATL Troupe work exceptionally hard and that sometimes having someone check in on them might be beneficial.

“I look at what everyone is doing,” she said. “I’m thinking adulthood is going to be a little easier for them.”

Much of what she does revolves around research into the context of the play, what the troupe can do with its existing talent in cast and crew and directing a vision into reality.

However, this has been an amazing first few months for Ms. Lloyd. She hopes to continue being at Lambert for years to come. 

“I don’t think any teacher knows how they fit into a culture, what the game plan is or what the rhythm of the school is until they’ve been there for a few years,” she said. “In the first year, you’re learning what everyone is doing.  In your second year, you finally start to set things up and see how it works. In the third year, you get to re-engage and then you know what you’re doing. By your fifth, you know if you’re home or not.”

Lambert cannot wait to see what our new drama teacher has in store for us next. Be sure to see “Secret Garden” this week and the production of “The Great Gatsby” in the future!