STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Woodside High School 12th grader Gabriella Cartwright
Student in the Center for the Arts & Communications
Published October 28, 2026
Spending all four years of high school immersed in the arts magnet program at Woodside High School has allowed Gabriella Cartwright to explore her many creative interests. It's also how she landed in theatre, which she plans to study in college and work in professionally.
"It just felt like something I was good at, but also it connected a lot of those things I had really liked in my childhood all along about live performance and the arts," Cartwright said.
Now a senior, Cartwright is completing the drama concentration of Woodside's arts magnet while working on the latest production she's been part of.
Woodside will stage William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on November 6 and 7 in the school's Auditorium, with Cartwright playing the female lead role of Hermia.
Cartwright's interest in performing arts started with both of her parents having music backgrounds and her mother doing theatre all of her life. Always creative and artistic, Cartwright participated in a play while in seventh grade at Gildersleeve Middle School and she was hooked.
Her next logical step was Woodside's Arts and Communications Magnet Program, which is one of the many Magnet and Specialty Programs that Newport News Public Schools offers. The arts magnet has strands concentrating on music, visual arts, dance, drama and creative writing.
"There was really no question," Cartwright said. "It was just really what I wanted to do."
She sees among the program's strengths its having two teachers, one for the acting side and another to concentrate on the technical aspects such as stagecraft and set design. Also, the drama program's many traditions and history of quality shows have helped build its reputation.
"We're always looking for new ways to make it even better, and really step up to that more prestigious level of magnet status," Cartwright said.
She has gained valuable experience, both from working on almost every show in the theatre department over her four years and studying in specialized classes. Cartwright has participated in acting, directed a one-act play written by one of her best friends, and helped with set design and stage managing.
Among her favorites was playing Ariel in "Footloose" and directing student-written "Lemonade Trials and Confessions."
"Being able to be behind the scenes and direct, and get to put all the pieces together myself and use my own creative vision made it really, really fun," Cartwright said.
She takes creative writing classes, is part of the National Honor Society and Social Studies National Honor Society, and conducted tours during freshman orientation. Outside of school, Cartwright works as a stage hand at The Wagsters Magic Theatre in Williamsburg, helping to pull off the illusions.
"It's very fun because I know how everything works, but I can't tell anyone," she said.
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