by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
The 2024 Longwood University High School Theater Teacher of the Year is a middle school teacher.
Aidan Brown, a sophomore at Longwood, wrote in the letter nominating his middle school theater teacher Andrea Candea-Carroll for the award that he’s usually a rule-follower, but in this case, he had to break the rules.
“Ms. Candea is why I am who I am today,” he said, reading aloud from his nomination letter on Tuesday during a surprise visit to H.H. Poole Middle School to present her with the award. “She impacts students in all settings at all times.”
Ronda Scarrow, who directs the theater program at Longwood, and Joyce Sweet, an adjunct professor of theater at the college, said the way Brown spoke about the influence Candea-Carroll had on him convinced them to bend their rules and present her with the award, which is now in its third year.
The two had no regrets after visiting Candea-Carroll’s classroom on Tuesday and observing the way her students thrive there.
“Your teacher is awesome,” Scarrow told them, explaining why they had just swarmed into the classroom singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” and bearing a bunch of balloons and an oversized check.
“We already know she’s awesome!” the students responded.
Sweet was impressed with the way Candea-Carroll, who has taught at H.H. Poole since 2011, was introducing her students to Commedia dell’arte by comparing the stock characters of that 16th century Italian art form to Sponge Bob characters.
“She has a strong curriculum, taking theater classics but making them relevant,” Sweet said. “And I can see that she laughs with her students.”
Brown said that before taking her class, he was “always the shy kid who did his work and went home.”
“But in the theater classroom, I immediately felt at home, and I took home an audition form for The Little Mermaid, Jr.” he said.
Scarrow said that it’s not unusual for theater teachers to have that kind of outsized impact on their students, which is why Longwood’s theater department conceived of the award.
She said students who take theater classes in middle and high school are more likely to graduate from high school and go on to college, and that theater isn’t just about performing. It teaches life skills such as patience, discipline, and how to embrace being part of a community.
Anna Papas, assistant principal at H. H. Poole, thanked the Longwood team for relaxing its rules to recognize someone from their school family.
“Her energy is amazing,” Papas said of Candea-Carroll. “She is always meeting the kids where they are. If I could reproduce her, I would.”
Papas added that a teacher’s job is to help students see beyond who they are.
“That’s what [Candea-Carroll does],” she said. “She helps students see what they might be.”
And that’s what she’s done for Brown, who is now at Longwood studying special education and theater and who hopes to return to Stafford County Public Schools as a teacher.
“I want to inspire people the way she is today,” he said.
