No Beach this summer!
Mari Martinez
This past summer, I decided to forgo the beach and instead
headed to the mountains in beautiful Denver, CO. I didn’t get a tan, or sport a new bikini,
but instead saw old friends, made new connections and learned new and exciting
things about the field of theatre education at the AATE conference.
Going to the conference this summer was such a great
experience. I was a bit hesitant about going alone; I was worried about feeling
out of place and under experienced to be at National Conference of this size-but
immediately felt a sense of relief and empowerment when I saw that I knew
people there! Our field is indeed, quite small! I re-connected with a former
boss and mentor from over five years ago when I worked as a teaching artist at
the Omaha Children’s Theatre.
We both
felt a sense of nostalgia at reconnecting and it was so great being able to discuss
the field not as an employee or student, but as a peer in the filed. It turns
out that my former boss is very much involved with AATE and
through him; I was able to meet many artists from all over the country and many
AATE committee members as well. We promised to keep in touch and remember to
share new ideas and he also said he would be more than happy to connect me to
other people and opportunities in the future. I also was able to meet with
other teaching artists I worked with at the children’s theatre who have since
moved on to work in other theatres all over the country and through them was
able to meet new people and learn about new programs.
The sessions offered at AATE were numerous and at times,
hard to choose which ones to attend. Even if you went to a session that turned
out to be not as great as you expected, it still was an opportunity to meet and
talk to new people and form new relationships. No session, or event at AATE was
a waste of time.
Most of the time, you did go to very interesting sessions-but
there seems to be one in particular that stands out to every person who
attends. Again, going to AATE for just that one session-that one that shows you
something new, or inspires you in a new way it is worth it all. For me, that
session was with a theatre company called C&T based in England. This
company presented new ways technology and theatre can work together to engage
and teach students. As someone who isn’t
very tech-savvy, this session was very exciting and interesting to me. It
definitely got my creative juices flowing and opened my mind to new
possibilities.
So, no tan, no beach but I got the mountains and the amazing
experience that AATE made possible. I am so glad that I was able to go-and I am
so thankful to Sobha for introducing me to new people and for guiding me
throughout the conference. After four days, I left the conference feeling
engaged, inspired, validated as an artist that was lucky to belong to such an
amazing community. See you all in Milwaukee next year!
