Award-winning teacher Paul Fillingim opens season at NEISD school with 'The Outsiders,' running Sept. 19-21.
Whenever Reagan High School theater teacher Paul Fillingim mentions that he is directing “ The Outsiders ,” he almost always is asked about the musical currently playing on Broadway . Scenes from that production, including a rumble in the rain, made a big impression at the Tony Awards earlier this year.
'The Outsiders' ultimately won four, including Best Musical. “People ask me if it’s going to be as good as the Tonys,” he told the cast and crew of Reagan’s show at the start of the first rehearsal. “I tell them no. It’s going to be better!” To be clear, Reagan is not doing the musical version. Fillingim is directing a play adapted from S.E. Hinton’s influential 1967 novel about the sometimes violent rivalry in Tulsa, Oklahoma, between the Greasers, who are poor kids struggling to get by; and the Socs , who seemingly have it all. It runs Sept. 19 to 21. The show kicks off Fillingim’s eighth year teaching at Reagan. In that time, he’s made a big impression on his students. Cameron Duggins, who graduated last year, was part of Reagan’s theater program all four years. He represented San Antonio at the National High School Musical Theatre Awards — also known as the Jimmy Awards — in New York City his senior year. Fillingim had a huge influence on him. “He brought this energy each day that was so inspiring. He was so authentically himself,” said Duggins, who is going into his second year as a vocal performance major at Northwestern University. “He never hid the fact that he has a husband and two beautiful children, and he always told us to never hide the parts of us that make us special. 'Being a gay kid in Texas, that’s what I needed to hear to be able to be myself, to be proud to be myself, and not fear what others think, but live each day unapologetically myself.” Duggins nominated Fillingim for the Inspiring Teacher Award, a new category at the Jimmys. He clearly made a good case: Fillingim was one of two teachers who received the award at the Jimmys in June. RELATED: Reagan High School teacher to be honored at the National High School Musical Theatre Awards “He instilled so much of the pride I have in my performance and the pride I have in myself,” Duggins said. “He grew that, he fostered that. There was no one more deserving that came to mind.” Fillingim has remained an important mentor for him and recently helped the young performer prepare for an audition. “I have a feeling that will only continue,” Duggins said. “He’s my teacher for life, for sure.” Bella Campos, who graduated from Reagan in 2019 and is still close to Fillingim, was delighted to see him recognized on a national level. “He deserves all the roses he’s getting,” said Campos, who earned a degree in musical theater from Carnegie Melon University and is now pursuing an acting career. She was a junior when Fillingim started at Reagan. The theater kids had been fond of his predecessor, she said, and they were a little nervous about someone new coming in. Fillingim made a lot of changes. He started focusing on contemporary plays rather than the classics — “We were like, how dare you! ,” said Campos, laughing. He encouraged students to consider applying to colleges outside of Texas. And the program also started participating in competitions. That included UIL and the Joci Awards, the South Texas scholarship competition staged in San Antonio by the Majestic Empire Foundation. It sends two students each year to the Jimmys. RELATED: Get to know all about the Joci Awards scholarship program Since Reagan started competing, four of its students have made it all the way to the Jimmys. Two went the first time Reagan competed. Campos was one of them. “Everything was sort of shifting underneath our feet in a very positive way,” she said. “It was incredible. We started feeling successful, and I think that’s pretty important for young, insecure high schoolers to feel. “He pushed us to the best of our ability and made everyone feel understood and seen and safe. So when you make a safe environment, it allows people to blossom.” Current students hold a similar point of view. Emery Meighin, 16, came to Reagan as a freshman after moving to San Antonio from Boston. He had been an athlete, and had to choose between football and theater. He opted for the latter, and he’s gotten a lot out of it and out of conversations with Fillingim. “You can always talk to Mr. Fillingim like a human being,” said Meighin, a junior who plans to pursue a career in theater. “There’s no filter with him. He talks to me like he would talk to you, like he would talk to the president. That’s one of my favorite things about him. “The Outsiders,” in which Meighin plays Greaser Dallas Winston, has been one of his best experiences so far. He said that he and the other actors have formed a tight group: “I’ve made some real brothers from this.” Junior Jordan Miesen, 16, who plays Sandy, the girlfriend of one the Greasers, came to Reagan as a freshman. She had moved from California and asked around about high school theater programs here. She heard good things about Reagan and liked the fact that it does several shows each year, including one big musical. Fillingim helped tip the balance. She dropped by the school during a rehearsal to check things out, and even though he was clearly busy, he took the time to talk to her. “I remember there was a problem with the fly system, and he still came over and chit-chatted,” she said. “I thought this is the right place for me, the right place to grow, the right place to learn.” It took Fillingim a while to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. He had been a choir kid who fell for musical theater at Lubbock High School, an academic magnet that was also was the alma mater for Buddy Holly, Natalie Maines and Mac Davis. “I come from a family of cotton farmers,” said Fillingim, who did his undergrad work at Texas Tech University. “Nobody around me knew anything about auditioning for BFA musical theater programs. And so for two years, I just took basics and floundered, and finally my dad was kind of like, ‘This is what you want to do. Just go try.’ “There’s not a whole lot of farmers from West Texas that are like, ‘Go pursue your art.’ I’m very, very lucky to have amazingly supportive parents.” He earned a master’s degree from Texas State University, then returned to Texas Tech to pursue a PhD in arts administration and acting/directing with an eye toward teaching college. He stopped just short of completing the program for a lot of reasons, including the realization that it was getting harder and harder to find tenure-track posts at colleges. He shadowed some friends who taught high school and decided to give it a try. Reagan is his third high school post. He feels lucky to have strong support from the principal and for the fact that the arts faculty members look out for each other and collaborate well. He also feels that he is making a difference. “Nothing teaches empathy like theater teaches empathy, and that is what is in short supply in our world right now,” he said. “Doing a show like ‘The Outsiders,’ I think the central message of it is, when you have these two groups of people that are warring, how do you find the commonality there? “What I hope is that when I send kids out into the world and they do interact with somebody that’s different than they are, they have a vocabulary and an experience to help them approach that relationship with empathy and understanding.”
UIL NEISD Northwestern University Socs Carnegie Melon University Texas Tech University Majestic Empire Foundation Texas State University BFA Go Greaser Dallas Winston Paul Fillingim Reagan Cameron Duggins Bella Campos Greasers Emery Meighin Hinton Jordan Miesen The Outsiders Buddy Holly Natalie Maines Mac Davis San Antonio Broadway Oklahoma Tulsa South Texas Jimmys New York City Lubbock High School West Texas Boston California Tony Awards National High School Musical Theatre Awards Sandy Inspiring Teacher Award S.E. Joci Awards Jimmys The Outsiders Best Musical
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