Senior Isadora Lang began her journey into theatre and band while attending Kealing Middle School. When the pandemic hit, Lang’s interest in the film aspect of theatre grew. Although Lang originally wanted to play saxophone, she grew excited with the opportunity of playing French horn and continued this passion into high school. Now, Lang is a drum major, theatre major, professional actress, member of the National Honor Society, the Science National Honor Society, Environmental Knights, Samba Knights and writing center tutor. 

Lang’s inspiration to pursue her film and theatrical career at McCallum was rooted in the stories her aunt, a professional actress, told her about Broadway and the professional film industry. Later on in middle school during the pandemic, Lang found ways to incorporate this passion with the interactive projects she does with her younger family members. 

 “Those [projects] happened to end up being me directing them in iMovie trailers or dramatic music videos that I would film on my mom’s iPad,” Lang said. “And then eventually, as I got older, longer pieces on my phone.” 

These projects inspired Lang to find an agent to pursue filmmaking and acting professionally. This passion carried over into high school for Lang as she became involved in the film community at McCallum. 

“I had a love of communicating my visions with others,” Lang said. “And that translated into continuing to direct and find other behind-the-scenes projects I could get involved with.”

According to senior Julia Lentz, a friend and colleague of Lang, Lang’s dedication has been ever-present since Lentz began working on the film “Deja Vu” during her sophomore year. Lentz recalled Lang’s positive attitude despite inconvenient conditions. 

“I worked on a film over the summer and Isadora was one of the leads,” Lentz said. “It was incredibly hot and we had long shooting days. Isadora was incredibly resilient, always on time for shooting and literally did not complain once.”

Lang’s love of band also translated into her dedication to the program, according to band director Dillon Junkin. Despite the challenges that life throws at Lang, such as missing a week of band camp due to illness, she always rises to the occasion, according to Junkin. 

“Nevertheless, she always made it a point to do her absolute best as well as motivate her peers to do the same,” Junkin said. “Then in the spring, I threw her in the deep end as the 1st chair French horn player in the symphonic band as a freshman, and from there I knew she was going to be a star for this program.”

While these activities can warrant 15-hour days combined, Lang is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to participate in all of them. She maintains her motivation through her passion, friends, family and work ethic. 

“I will admit there have been definite points where I have been really stressed or tired out, but my passion and my friends and my family in all my activities help me stay motivated to keep on going,” Lang said. “Managing all of these activities means spending 15 hours at school on the regular, which usually means I try and get most of my school work done during class, and then I get time to work on college apps outside of school.”

Fellow drum major, junior Olivia Kraft, enjoys working with Lang due to her persistent encouragement and kindness toward others. According to Kraft, Lang’s leadership success in band is due to her passion and spirit. 

“She sets a really good example for the rest of the band and throws herself into trying to make everyone feel heard,” Kraft said. “She lends her incredible spiritedness, and she is really mindful of people’s feelings.”

Lang is able to immerse herself in all of her activities at such a high level due to her time management skills. When Lang goes to band practice, she focuses only on band, while in film, her whole mind is locked into the film process. However, there are some physical limitations to how much Lang can do in a day.

“You never want to go past your line of what you can handle,” Lang said. “Even if it could cause saying sometimes no to the things you love to do, it benefits you entirely because you won’t associate whatever you’re up to with negative emotions or stress.”

When the time came last year for drum major applications, Junkin felt there was no choice but to put Lang into the role. According to Junkin, Lang deserves the role because of her demonstrated dedication throughout the years in the band program.

“She is a great musician, she is incredibly well-respected by her peers, and she is one of the most reliable students I have ever met,” Junkin said. “We did not so much as select her, but rather she was undeniable in her words and actions, and I know she will carry that same character in every walk of her life.”

Lang hopes to bring all the skills she’s learned from band and film to college. Although Lang is currently looking into careers in communications or film, she plans to continue to bring music into her life. 

“Whether it be through using film, media, or other communication devices to impact others, I want to continue understanding the ways people interact with each other and their society,” Lang said. “My dream would be in whatever career I end up with, that I use what I have learned in my participation in my activities thus far, to create a platform I could use to impact the future for the better.”