Jenna Prest: A Space with Meaning

Academy teacher Jenna Prest

Jenna Prest calls high school theatre her affinity space.

It was where she met her people, the period she couldn’t wait to get to, the tasks that filled her with drive — the place she could be herself. 

“Theatre was where I found my group of friends,” says Prest, now Head of Letters, senior high English language arts and drama teacher at Rundle Academy. “The stuff I really remember from my experience in junior high and high school is goofing around backstage with my friends, putting on that headset and doing a 20-second change when the curtain is about to go up.”

Prest is the artistic director for the Academy’s junior and senior high theatre arts program, which fosters a similar sense of community for the roughly 30 students that put on the school’s major performance and spring showcase each year. 

“Because I get to teach these kids, I see them in academics and on stage,” she says. “And, I see the real-world application of life skills and collaboration.”

Prest recently completed her Masters of Education with a focus on multiple literacies — enhancing her background in using visual literacy to support neurodivergent students. To Prest, giving students space to practice everyday skills builds their sense of selves.

“There are students with reading disabilities reading lines, and students with social challenges operating in community,” she says.

With a second art-and-design studio included in the new building plans, along with a purpose-built music room with specialized acoustics, the arts have a special emphasis in the renovations.

Theatre is still Prest’s affinity space, and she’s watching it become one for the students.

“You choose [theatre] because it brings you meaning, you like the community and these students feel empowered to get it right,” she says. “This becomes their job, their team, their celebration. You can be someone in theatre you might not get to be anywhere else.”