For several nights in March, the 63-year-old Riverview Junior High school took on a spirit reminiscent of the 112-year-old East High, where teachers encourage students to defy expectations and discover who they truly are. Whether it’s a jock whipping up a flawless crème brûlée or a brainiac dancing the night away, it’s a place where one person can change the entire dynamic—if they’re the right person.

On stage, the production of “High School Musical Jr.” brought this spirit to life, featuring a cast of 67 and a crew of 20, all coming together to make the show happen.

“I hope they feel they had a place to belong and that they matter,” director Emma Moss said. “With any show, I hope every member of the cast and crew feels they made a contribution, and their voice is important to be heard.”

This mindset is central to Moss, a second-year teacher who recently received the Utah Council of Teachers of English’s Early Career Middle School Teacher of the Year award, along with KUTV’s Teacher of the Month accolade.

“I love watching students grow. I love watching them make discoveries and gain confidence. I feel lucky teaching theater and English because I get to really watch them develop confidence in themselves as communicators. I was insecure when I was in middle and high school, so I hope I can provide a space where students can feel safe and they can experiment with their voice and figure out how to be an effective communicator and the confident person,” she said.

Growing up, Moss’s mother was certain her daughter would become a teacher, even before Moss realized it herself.

“I was like, ‘I don’t want to do that, Mom.’ When I graduated from high school and was deciding what to study, I looked at a list of majors, and saw theater education. I thought, ‘That sounds fun’ so I started taking theater education classes (at Brigham Young University). I got hired as a tutor and was teaching an after-school club, and I got hooked. I loved it; I never looked back,” she said.

Now she teaches about 200 students per year in four theater classes — beginning, intermediate and advanced theater and technical theater — as well as seventh-grade English. Moss also directs a fall play with the advanced theater students — this year it was “The Hamlet Thrill-Ma-geddon,” a humorous parody on the Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” — as well as the musical.

“I chose the musical toward the end of last school year after my beginning theater class studied a few musicals by reading scripts, researching and presenting what they learned in pitch presentations. A few groups were interested in ‘High School Musical,’ and I realized how much these students love this music and the show. I picked it because I thought it has a good fun message, music that people enjoy and some fun different parts for the students,” she said.

What she didn’t know was actress KayCee Stroh, who played the brainiac Martha Cox in the movie, lives in Utah and often attends local productions. One of the cast members knew her and invited her to the show.

“She talked to the cast and signed some autographs, and they were all so excited to get to meet a celebrity,” Moss said. “She said her favorite thing about ‘High School Musical’ is the message it shares about how we are all different, but we benefit from our differences, and bringing our differences together makes life more beautiful. I thought it was a great message for them, because in middle school, you question, ‘Do I fit in? Am I strange? Who’s going to be my friend?’ So bringing our differences together can be really beautiful and powerful. It impacted them a lot,” she said.

While Moss is reviewing scripts for next year’s musical, she isn’t ready to reveal which ones she’s considering. She does hope theater will continue to have a lasting impact on Riverview’s students.

“I hope we can continue to grow the theater program,” she said. “It was fun to see we went from a cast of 50 with ‘Matilda’ last year to a cast of 67. I want to try to get as many students involved as possible.”

Two other Murray teachers were recently honored by the Utah Council of Teachers of English. In 2023, Riverview’s Elisabeth Blandford received the First-year Teacher Award, and last year, Kaele Shields from Hillcrest Junior High earned the six to 20-Year Experienced Teacher Award. λ