The Viking Drama Club

the Jim neal years 1973-2003

Dana Pekkarinen
Alumni -1995

Dana Pekkarinen

Mirth and Mayhem, Peter Pan, Once on This Island

Stage manager for Mirth and Mayhem, pit band for Peter Pan and Once on this Island. I was a special education teacher for 14.5 years. Taught for 1.5 years at Spaulding School in Gurnee and then 13 years in Libertyville District 70 (Butterfield & Rockland). I resigned in 2016 to move to Okinawa, Japan with my husband. We lived there for 2.5 years. We moved back in 2018 and I had my daughter in 2019. Now I’m a stay at home mom, using all those stage management skills to keep our household going.We live in Libertyville and enjoy being close to family and friends. Thank you Mr Neal for instilling in us such great work ethic and understanding that community is everything. I still can’t go to a junior high musical without expecting all the kids to circle around the audience at the end to sing “There’s no Greater Feeling!” Just feels like there’s something missing!