The house lights went down and a spotlight shone bright on the right side of the Eagle Theater stage before the sold-out final performance of Los Altos High School’s production of “Mamma Mia.” Dance and English teacher April Oliver took to the stage to introduce the show — and to declare the end of an era. When Oliver announced that theater director Nancy Moran would retire at the end of the school year, audible cries of “No!” came from the crowd, followed by a wave of laughter. 

Oliver went on to congratulate Moran on her 27 years at LAHS and reminisced on the almost three decades that the two have enjoyed together as friends and colleagues.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do without Ms. Moran,” Oliver said, “so I bought a house a mile away from her.”

And Oliver is not the only one lamenting the loss: Moran has formed strong relationships with hundreds of students during her time at LAHS. Many of Moran’s students have her for up to four years as she teaches both Acting I classes and Broken Box, the school theater company. This allows her to see her students progress through their high school careers.

“I went into freshman year Acting I kind of scared, nervous, just wanting to do my art credit,” senior Diya Gupta said. “And now I’m here senior year.”

Indeed, Moran seems to have a talent for luring students out of their shells and bringing out the actor within. 

“You taught us to love acting, and to be so confident in ourselves that we could be someone else on stage,” senior Serena Gaylord said in a tearful speech to Moran at the curtain call of “Mamma Mia.” “And we love you so much for it.”

A big reason that Moran is so close with her students is that she sees teaching as more than just a job.

“There is a part of me that can’t imagine life without it,” Moran said. “It sustains me.”

That passion has sustained Moran through 99 shows, with her 100th and final show taking the stage this spring.

Moran’s students have gone on to do many things, including becoming teachers themselves. English teacher Lisa Battle, ‘03, had Moran as her Broken Box director when she attended LAHS, and fondly remembers the three years she spent in the program. 

“She’s just kindness in a person – she’s just so kind,” Battle said. 

Many echo this affection, recalling memories of happy birthday texts or thoughtful gifts during white elephant exchanges. 

“She’s an angel,” Diya said. “She’s like my angel on campus.”

And she is an angel who gives her students wings and room to fly, a gift that so many appreciate.

“She just respected us as adults, and as a student, I felt empowered and I felt like a young adult that could kind of do anything,” Battle said.

Moran’s teaching philosophy proves that she values students and their opinions in this way by entrusting them to solve problems themselves. 

“Ms. Moran would be like, ‘If you can figure it out, do it!’” Battle said. 

So students do figure it out, forging new paths and exploring areas of theater that they might not previously have considered. Moran encourages her students to reframe the problems they face – not as something to fear, but as an opportunity to do something fun and interesting and imaginative.

“I think that giving that gift to so many young people before they go out into the world is just… I mean, it’s amazing,” Battle said. “You come across an issue, and you’re like, ‘I got this, I can solve this, I can make this into something amazing and beautiful.’”

For example, Battle recalls her senior year production of “Peter Pan,” where she took on the task of sewing a tunic for Peter.

“And had I ever sewn a tunic before? No! But I learned how to do it,” Battle said. “And this was before YouTube tutorials.”

This experience in costume design would later allow Battle to get a job at a costume shop as a freshman in college and help her pay for school. Indeed, the immersive experience Moran provides leads many students to pursue areas of theater outside of school and often beyond high school. Battle, for example, pursued a theater education degree.  

While she pushes her students, Moran also pushes herself. She is always determined to make the best show possible, with many describing her as ambitious. None of the 99 productions Broken Box has put on under Moran’s leadership would have been possible without her sheer resourcefulness and dedication. When the Eagle Theater was first built, the opening show was “Three Musketeers,” and Moran did not waste the opportunity to make a first big splash. 

“For ‘Three Musketeers,’ she bought scaffolding from a construction site!” Battle recalled, laughing. “And it was multi-level! There was this giant scaffolding that was supposed to be a castle, maybe? I still remember that.”

Moran never shies away from an opportunity to take a production to the next level. For “Three Musketeers,” she hired a stage fight combat choreographer to design the various fight sequences. For “Peter Pan,” she hired a professional flying company to train parents to help with flying for the performance. For “Trap,” a student favorite, she persisted with her vision for glow-in-the-dark glasses despite initial doubts from students – and of course, they were a big hit.

“She just has this vision, and every show, she brings it to life,” Diya said.

In Broken Box, Moran has cultivated an environment where students can grow close to one another and feel comfortable exploring the world of theater.

“She made this amazing space where we all felt safe and loved and creative,” Battle said. “So of course, it was my favorite place. It was one of the first times I felt like I belonged somewhere.”

Broken Box also attracts a variety of people from lots of groups and activities at LAHS, creating a diverse group of people and an accepting community within the walls of the theater. While it is the students that make the environment so positive, Moran is the one that makes it all happen.

“It’s so cheesy, we say this all the time, but it really is a family,” Serena said. “Everyone really wants to be there and Ms. Moran is the glue that holds us together.”

Moran’s retirement will leave an obvious hole in the theater program, as she is the kind of teacher that will forever leave her mark on students.

“She’s a teacher I’ll keep in touch with when I graduate,” Diya said. “100 percent.”

Moran is the rare kind of teacher that can change the trajectory of her students’ lives beyond immersing students in the world of theater.

“I became a teacher because of her,” Battle said. “She made such a big impact on me, I thought, ‘Why not try and do the same?’”

And the impact goes both ways.

“It’s truly one of those things that, you know, you walk away from, and it’s been pretty much your whole life,” Moran said.