New Mid-Pacific ninth-grade social studies and MPX teacher, Lanaly Cabalo, has always had a passion for theater.

“I started doing theater in elementary school. So I’ve been doing it for a very long time,” she said.

Cabalo has 11 years of teaching experience. Prior to being a teacher, she was a reporter. She decided to become a teacher out of the desire to help students become more articulate.

“A lot of the times I had to interview students, when I moved over here I felt it would be a great opportunity for me to help students or help teenagers be more articulate and aware of the world,” Cabalo said.

Although she doesn’t teach theater, outside of school she has taken over as production manager for the Hawaii Shakespeare Festival. She directs and stage manages theater productions. Cabalo says she has “always worked in theater to some capacity.”

Throughout her career, she has always been teaching some form of social science while doing theater outside of school.

“For the most part I’ve always had this duality to myself where I had a job and did theater. Then there was just recently, over the last few years, the opportunity for me to merge the two industries, my education and theater,” Cabalo said.

Although she works for the Hawaii Shakespeare Festival, this does not mean her theatrical interests lie solely in Shakespeare’s work.

“I try to stay away from Shakespeare just because it’s already done. So I try to find upcoming playwrights to give more agency to other playwrights. I felt that we were doing some projects that fit well with what theater should be.”