Every year at Fort Hamilton, students get to enjoy two major performances by the drama department: the fall play and the spring musical. While the cast and plots of these productions change constantly, the director never does; for over twenty years, Fort Hamilton’s Mr. Coulter has directed every major production and taught drama classes. Soon, however, this will too be changing, as Mr. Coulter will be retiring at the end of this academic year.

Many of Mr. Coulter’s students expressed sadness over his departure, but gratitude for what they learned in his class. 

“Mr. Coulter always finds a way to make the class and production process a life lesson,” said Arya Liu, a senior who starred in various Fort drama productions. “He emphasized two major takeaways from theater that are applicable to real life: take risks and know yourself and the world around you.” 

Mr. Coulter said that he has learned much from his students in the same way. The most important lesson he learned in his tenure at Fort Hamilton was to be patient and “take [his] time with [himself] and [his] students.”

This lesson, however, wasn’t the only facet of teaching at Fort that stood out to Coulter. Mr. Coulter pointed to “the relationship between the students in the classroom, the teamwork, going to shows, producing theater, and creating theater” as his favorite parts of the profession. In particular, Mr. Coulter noted his appreciation for being able to be involved in the extracurricular activities and various productions with the drama department over the years. 

“We’ve created some really great productions, whether they’d be a play in the fall or a musical production in the spring,” he said. “They’ve all been really valuable, and I always learn something about myself and I hope the students learn more about themselves: confidence, ability to think outside of the box, and imagination.”

When asked what he hopes to leave students with, Mr. Coulter enthusiastically replied, “To be better communicators, to go out and take risks and sometimes fail miserably but understand your mistake, and maybe, hopefully, you will learn something about yourself, your community, and do better the next time. Go out and take risks and challenge your fear.”