Mrs. Michelle Robbins is a teacher here at Bingham and has taught here for 14 years. She is responsible for most of the fine arts department; the one that makes the magic happen. She has directed 20 musicals in her life, and 12 have been at Bingham. The classes she teaches here are Stage Tech, Theatre 1 and 3, PLT (Peer Leadership Team), Theatre 1013, and Musical Theatre.

She works closely with Ms. Elizabeth Smith and they share the duty of theatre productions in a rotation method (ex. Ms. Smith directed the musical this year, so Mrs. Robbins will be directing the winter play). There are two large productions–musical and winter play–and two smaller productions–Shakespeare and regionals–every year, so each teacher gets to do one of each. Though they both run the Drama Club, Robbins takes on more of the responsibilities regarding the Theatre department, since she is the veteran at the school, and Ms. Smith is in charge of the SBOs. It is because of the shared work between the two teachers that Robbins has been able to teach classes such as PLT and Theatre 1013.

Robbins’ most financially successful musical was Beauty and the Beast, but she doesn’t think it was her best work theatrically. She loved directing Peter Pan and Oklahoma!, partly because of the kids who were in it and the way they worked together, and how everything came together for them. Oklahoma! was special to her because she had the image of what she wanted in her mind and when the set was built, it looked exactly like she had imagined. Peter Pan was directed around the time Robin Williams died and his version was her favorite, and it made it all the more meaningful when she did it.

If Robbins had the chance to redo any productions, she would redo Cinderella and Bye Bye Birdie, because she did them when she was still new to the school and the community; the community didn’t know how she worked and it was harder because she had to get accustomed to the way things were done here at Bingham.