Drama Fine Arts Music Calendar Hostetter Arts Center		Drama Department In 1988, drama formally became part of Pingry's curriculum with the arrival of Albert Romano. An English teacher, administrator, and drama director at the Trinity School in Manhattan for 10 years, he joined Pingry's faculty charged with establishing a drama department. “One of the benefits of having a drama program is that in the process, you get to talk through a lot of important issues in a young person's life. A drama teacher isn't a psychologist or a social worker, but often drama allows a student, in developing a character or working through an improvisation, to talk about an issue that may not have any other place to surface,” Albert Romano explains. Albert C. Romano Department Chair Drama 2, Drama 3, Drama 4 Stephanie A. Romankow Faculty Drama 1 Trisha Wheeler Faculty Introduction to Dance Albert C. Romano Department Chair Stephanie A. Romankow Faculty Drama 6, Drama 8 Trisha Wheeler Faculty Drama 7, Drama 8, Dance Drama can be found on the Lower School campus in kindergarten through sixth grade where teachers and students find opportunities to blend plays and reenactments of historic events into courses throughout the curriculum. Formal courses are offered throughout the Middle and Upper Schools. Middle School students in seventh grade take "Mask, Movement, and Storytelling," a required, 10-week course which ends with a performance of an original show with a cultural theme for the Middle School. "Comedy Sports," an eighth grade elective, trains students to work together, much as a sports team to create fast-paced, physically expressive, improvisational scenes based on audience suggestions. It also concludes with a performance for the Middle School.