Years ago, if a student were to walk  into the auditorium during a rehearsal, he or she would have likely seen Kevin Lacey in costume, waiting for his cue. As a senior, he faced the audience from the stage, delivering lines and songs under the same lights that now shine on the choir students. The stage hasn’t changed, but his role has. 

Now, instead of stepping into a character to act, he steps onto the podium to conduct. He doesn’t face the audience, but turns his back to it, locking eyes with his students instead. The same stage that defined him as a theatre student less than a decade ago has become a place where he lifts up others, shaping the next generation of performers. 

“It’s been very fulfilling thus far,” Lacey said.  “I’ve been here for a couple years, which has been really, really nice. [With] stepping into a full-time position, the responsibility has increased, but I think with responsibility also comes a lot of fulfillment.”

Lacey graduated from Rock Ridge in 2017 and attended Elon University, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater. During his time in college, he served as a music director/supervisor for several shows and cabarets. After graduating, he performed professionally at theaters across the country and worked as a performer at the Disneyland Resort. 

Lacey has previously been involved in Rock Ridge’s theater arts department, teaching and directing choreography and vocals part-time for numerous productions including “Rent,” “Prince of Egypt,” “Tarzan,” “Footloose, and, most recently, “Hadestown.” 

The school’s theatre teacher, Ann Devine, finds that his presence brings a contagious energy to rehearsing and teaching. “It’s so much fun [to work together],” Devine said. “We only have a good time together. We started to work together many years ago, and every time we work together we have a blast” 

Devine has already noticed students being more engaged in the music since Lacey stepped into the role as the choir director. “They have such excitement and appreciation for music,” Devine said. “They want to suggest songs to sing in class and are excited to try new things.” 

Lacey ties many of his choral strategies to his own knowledge from performing professionally. “A lot of the lessons that I teach and things that I try to instill are from my experience in the real world,” Lacey said.  “So they may not be from a textbook or curriculum, but they are reality, which is nice and refreshing for students.”

In addition to teaching classes, Lacey will be in charge of overseeing the large and highly regarded choir program. Despite his experience, Lacey said that stepping into this role that previously was held by  Jordan Markwood, a former Washington Post Teacher of the Year, was intimidating at first. “No one can be Mr. Markwood,” Lacey said. “I think I came into the job really nervous because I’m not him, and [students are] going to expect so much out of me.”

However, after being warmly welcomed into his role as the new choral director, he has now set his sights on goals for his students, in hopes of building the same passion for music that he developed as a student himself. 

“[Markwood] was my first real introduction into choral music, and he really instilled a passion for choral music that I’m finding again for myself,” Lacey said. “That’s a part of what I want to do, and what I hope to leave with the current students that I teach.”

Students see Lacey as a mentor who brings a unique approach to teaching, like junior and teacher assistant Dust McCready, who met Lacey during a summer camp for “The Little Mermaid”. 

“Something that Mr. Lacey does differently is that he is still involved in his field as an actor and singer besides being a teacher, [so] he is able to give such current and insightful knowledge about performing that only a working actor could, and it makes everything he has to say so interesting and fresh,” McCready said.  

Senior Laura Adams also finds that Lacey’s background in theatre has changed the way many chorus students who don’t have experience in acting approach singing. “I have more emotion and facial expressions [when I sing],” Adams said. “Before it was just like, ‘Use your face,’ and now it’s like, ‘Why are you using your face?’” 

For Adams and other students who were familiar with Lacey before he officially took over the program, the transition felt smoother than it would have been otherwise. “A lot of us already knew who he was,” Adams said.  “I just feel like he also knew Markwood and how he ran things, so I feel like it was a smoother transition than having someone completely random come in.

For Lacey, teaching goes beyond rehearsals and concerts. He hopes students can leave his classroom with the same passion and joy for music that inspired him as a student, in the very same school. 

“My number one rule is having fun,” Lacey said. “I think that especially as an artist, and just as a person in this world right now, there’s so much going on. There’s so much heaviness, and any way that you can let the light in, follow that. Chase that. Because it won’t lead you astray.”