Chad McCoy's roots in Southlake go back—way back. He was raised in the community and went through Carroll schools, graduating in 1991.
Now, McCoy teaches theater at Dawson Middle School. He not only has kids performing the classics, he has also written a play that his students presented. Inspired by an article he read about the devastating effects of the West, Texas, deadly fertilizer plant explosion, McCoy researched and wrote a play that addressed the children of West and how their lives were altered by the tragedy. The play won first place in a UIL competition in 2014.
For the past two summers, McCoy has been running “Creative Kids,” a summer theater program that enables kids to write and perform their own plays. Even though he is passionate about the arts and devotes his time to inspiring youth to take to the stage, he realizes that community support makes his job better.
“I've never had a lack of support here,” he says. “Even financially. For Grease, we had a $1,000 budget, and it was $2,000 just to get the rights.” But the PTO stepped in so the show could go on.
Even Mayor Laura Hill, a fellow 2017 Tastemaker, has shown support, tweeting to her followers about a free kids' show that McCoy was directing.
“She didn't have to do that for me,” he says. But he understands that Southlake is unique. “We still have a strong sense of community here; we're going to come together no matter what.”