KoKo M. Thornton

After graduating from the Wake County Public School System in 1993, Miss Thornton received the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Scholarship to UNC-Charlotte where she received her BCA in Theatre Education and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1997.  While in college, she worked as an actor and professional costumer including being a dresser for the National Tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera.  After teaching theatre at Northwest School of the Arts in Charlotte where she was the recipient of an NCTC award for Outstanding Direction, Miss Thornton returned home to Raleigh and served on the NC Department of Public Instruction’s committee to rewrite the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for Theatre Education.  The 2020-2021 school year marks her 21st year teaching Theatre at Enloe Magnet High School.  Some of her directing credits include:  Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007 Capital Award for Outstanding Musical), Little Women (2008 Capital Award for Outstanding Direction), Once Upon a Mattress (2013 TRS Award for Best Musical), Thoroughly Modern Millie (2014 TRS Award for Best Ensemble), Into the Woods (2016 TRS Award for Best Musical), and Ragtime (2018 TRS Award for Best Musical).  Under her direction, Enloe HS was one of the  few high schools in the world to produce the musical Miss Saigon (2015) and the first and only high school to produce Jack Murphy and Frank Wildhorn's Wonderland (2020) - though COVID-19 closed it down three days before opening.  She is double certified in theatre and music and is a certified mentor teacher.  She loves to sing, play the piano, bake, and serve at her church.  In what little free time she has, she may be found hanging out with her 18 nieces and nephews at Lake Gaston and riding a jet ski.  Miss Thornton is the immediate past President of the North Carolina Theatre Arts Educators and the Arts Department Chair at Enloe Magnet High School.  She is also the North Carolina Theatre Arts Educators 2017 Teacher of the Year.