Liberty High's Chelsea Dove named Artist of Month

Chelsea Dove poses for a photo with the cast of "The Spongebob Musical".

By Sheryl Stradling

Chelsea Dove is being honored as Arts Council Menifee’s Artist of the Month for May because of her knowledge and enthusiastic cooperation in the planning and facilitation of this year’s Menifee’s Got Talent at Liberty High School on May 5.

Dove is Liberty High School’s Theater Program Director. She also teaches English Language Arts classes. Her classes include Theater 1 and 2, AP (Advanced Placement) English Language and Composition. She’s hoping to add additional theater arts courses in Stagecraft and Production in the future. She started her teaching career at Heritage High School, teaching English Language Arts classes, and moved to Liberty in 2021. This is her fifth year of teaching.

She moved to California from Baltimore in 2017 and currently lives in Lake Elsinore with her husband, 1-year old daughter, and two dogs. She says that family is very important to her and that she speaks with her mom almost daily.

As a teacher, Dove loves working with her students. She especially enjoys seeing them grow as actors, designers and crew members, and take on new challenges. She does a lot of brainstorming with her students, trying things out as they develop the production collaboratively. She says she is constantly amazed and inspired by her students.

Her vision for Liberty’s Bison Theater Troupe is to work together as a community of artists both on stage and behind the scenes to create theatrical productions that people enjoy. She wants to promote opportunities for future growth and success in theatrical arts while creating a community of student peers who support each other.

Liberty High School’s spring production this year was "The SpongeBob Musical", presented on April 27-29. This is the first musical Dove has worked on, since most of her experience has been with plays. She enjoys working with comedies, and especially with the comedic elements of SpongeBob. She says that for next year’s fall play, she’d like to continue working with comedy and possibly consider a farce, which is a lighthearted comedy which highlights ludicrous and improbable situations.

It might be surprising that Dove is not an actor, but prefers to work behind the scenes. She started her career in theater in the light booth, working her way up to Stage Manager and Director. She says doesn’t like to perform in front of an audience, and this helps her work with shy students. She believes it’s valuable for more shy students to learn that theater isn’t only what is seen on stage, but there is much behind-the-scenes work as well which they can contribute to.

Dove is looking forward to collaborating with the Arts Council Menifee on opportunities for her students, and plans to become a member. She brings her enthusiasm as well as her skills in communication, critical problem solving and teamwork to the Arts Council. Her previous experience in theater will be a great asset, as she served as a Stage Manager for over a dozen theatrical productions in community theaters in the Baltimore area, was on the board of a local theater there, and directed a play in 2016 that won an award for Best Production.

Dove graduated from the University of California Riverside with a M.A. in Education and a teaching credential. She did her undergraduate work at Stevenson University, Maryland, graduating with a B.A. in English Language and Literature.

For information on ACM, please visit www.artscouncilmenifee.org or call 951-290-2781.