Kimberly Griffin, a 2005 Hawthorne High School grad, has been employed by HHS since January 2010. But she is not your normal paraprofessional; she has a lot more going on in her life than most students know about.
Griffin’s theater career started when she was first involved in ballet, and then she started doing community theatre when she was fifteen. Griffin started being involved in the drama program at the high school during her junior year. Griffin was cast as Mrs. Gibbs in Our Town and Mrs. Malloy in The Matchmaker.
After she graduated, Griffin attended William Paterson University and now holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications. She took classes specifically in Theatre and Television Production.
Griffin wanted to figure out some way to give back to the HHS drama program because she owed the program and Mrs. Hackett so much, so Griffin decided to help out with the school plays. In order to be hired as co-director of the plays though, one must work for the school district. Griffin decided to become a substitute teacher in January of 2010. Then she became a full-time paraprofessional and now helps in three science classes and three history classes.
Griffin co-directed four of the Hawthorne High School plays: Guys and Dolls in the fall of 2010, Willy Wonka and Oklahoma in 2011. She will also be co-directing the upcoming play, West Side Story, which is her all-time second favorite play, so she is extremely excited.
As well as co-directing the plays, Griffin co-directs the HHS chorus with Robert Dubois and the Lincoln Middle School chorus, the Bella Voce Singers, with Kelly Wenz.
In her spare time, Griffin enjoys doing Revolutionary War and the Victorian Era (1800s) reenactments, which she does mostly on the weekends. “I love keeping history alive, because without what happened in the past, we wouldn’t be who we are now,” said Griffin. Some of her war reenacting photos can be seen in history teacher, Katherine Lyness’s room.
Griffin also enjoys reading and writing books. She is currently working on a novel that she plans to send to a few editors this summer.
Kimberly Griffin also does some singing in her free time. She sings in Hawthorne a couple of times a year for various occasions such as Hawthorne’s Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day services, and The Voice of Democracy awards in May.
One of the reasons Griffin became a paraprofessional was to save enough money to do what she really wants to do—become a stage manager. “The stage manager is one of the most important components of a theatre production, and it’s absolutely a very demanding job. I was told years ago that I seemed to have a knack for it, and between working on the shows here and volunteering with community theaters over the summer, I’m keeping myself sharp so that when it seems like it’s time to move on and pursue that career professionally full-time, I’ll be ready,” Griffin said.