In the weeks leading up to a show, visual junior Alexis Dziaba doesn’t leave campus until after sunset. Instead of working on an elaborate installation or visual showcase, she’s working on the crew for the Spring Musical. Dziaba has been referred to as a “triple major” by her peers due to her enrollment in theatre, visual, and digital media classes.

“Half of the people coming [into Building 7] don’t realize I’m not a theatre major because I spend [a lot of my time there],” Dziaba said. “[Theatre dean Bruce] Linser even tells me ‘I think of you as a theatre major because you’re always here.’”
While Dziaba is technically a visual junior, a glance at her course schedule would suggest otherwise.

“In [visual] I focus on painting and I take a digital media photography class,” Dziaba said. “Within theatre I take performance classes and technical classes [such as] Musical Theatre 2 and Stagecraft 1 and 2.”

Dziaba navigates the scheduling system by dual enrolling her academic classes in order to have space in her schedule for extra art classes.

“I dual enrolled my English and Math [classes] and I’m going to continue dual enrolling over the summer and in my senior year. Because of that I’m able to free up classes,” Dziaba said.

While taking theatre classes may seem like an odd choice for a visual major, Dziaba finds camaraderie between the two art areas.

“Last year in theatre we [had to write] an essay about how we can critique people,” Dziaba said. “I talked about how in visual, art criticism is something we do all the time so I’m used to critiquing people in a good way.”

In addition to using elements of art criticism in her theatre classes, working on theatre crews is another way Dziaba intertwines her majors.

“I was head painter for ‘The Ugly Duckling’, and I was able to draw a lot of the set so art helps in the technical aspect of theatre too,” Dziaba said.

With her passion and commitment to take theatre classes and stay after school for shows, one may wonder why Dziaba hasn’t transferred majors.

“I thought [about transferring], but if I do I lose all recognition as a visual major and have to graduate as a theatre major,” Dziaba said. “I’ve been [painting] since 6th grade and I want to graduate as a visual major.”

Dziaba isn’t permitted to graduate with two majors due a district policy that states that students in the Palm Beach County school district can only be in one choice program, or major, at a time.

“The district looks at my classes as two different choices, which is why they don’t let me have two majors,” Dziaba said. “After all the work I did, I should write the district a strongly worded letter about how I should graduate with two majors.”

Even though double majoring is not officially allowed, Dziaba encourages other students who may be on the fence about crossing over to give it a chance.

“The worst thing that could happen is if the class gets too hard and you have to switch,” Dziaba said. “With all the majors here if there’s [someone thinking] ‘Hey I would really love to try out that art class,’ or ‘I’d love to sew in the theatre department,’ go for it.”