Stephen Belber Visits - Eric Hoffman

Stephen Belber Visits - Eric Hoffman

It is a desire to teach young people how to be more decent that unites the educators in the City College of New York educational theatre graduate program.  “Decency”, or what we also call “non-cognitive skills” or “social skills” or “character”  (the field of education is still struggling to place a label on this important concept), is essential for young people to grow up to be productive, kind, happy and engaged citizens.  This is the goal of all caregivers and educators, but educational theatre is uniquely positioned to help young people develop a moral compass and identify the role they play in their community.  Through roleplaying, young people are given opportunities to recognize the choices they have and, on stage, experience the consequences of those choices.  It’s not that theatre education teaches young people to be heroes.  It simply gives them the skills like patience, curiosity, gratitude and focus that allow decent people to work hard, communicate and engage with their families, communities and careers.  When faced with adversity, people with these skills make better choices than those who don’t.

On October 9th, my classmates and I were lucky enough to participate in a dialogue with Stephen Belber, one of the core ensemble members of the Tectonic Theatre Project, which created the profoundly moving and significant play The Laramie Project.  The Laramie Project tells the story of the homophobic murder of Matthew Shepard and the reaction it caused in the community of Laramie, Wyoming and the national media.  During the lecture, Belber went into depth about the philosophy that informed Tectonic Theatre Project’s process of the creation of this piece.

In The Laramie Project, a docu-drama created from the verbatim transcripts of interviews conducted by the members of the Tectonic Theatre Project, we are introduced to residents of Laramie, Wyoming.    Many of the real people depicted in the play people struggled to save Matthew Shepard’s life, helped their community to heal and forced their community to take a hard look at itself and the consequences of its homophobia. These individuals come from different walks of life and through the journey of the play we watch them grow and evolve.  Through the play, we see how the tragedy of Matthew Shepard’s death lead them to discover compassion and bravery they did not know they had.   Belber reported on a process that helped a town become an observer of itself for the first time.

Can the lives of future Matthew Shepards be saved if people become observers when they are young?  I am not sure if a robust theatre education program in Laramie’s grade schools could have prevented this tragedy, but I do know that part of the solution to preventing this kind of hate lies in the lesson plans like the ones found in Sharon Grady’s Drama and Diversity.  Grady lays out a series of lesson plans that help young people understand and combat racism, sexism classism, abelism and homophobia.

Theatre education and plays like The Laramie Project can wake people up, give them a chance to observe the world and their lives more closely, which will help them make compassionate and brave choices that will transforms the world into a more decent place.  Stephen Belber gave our class guidance as artists and educators as we try to make a world more self aware, one classroom at a time.  

Jeremiah Drake Visits - Laurie Berich

 Jeremiah Drake Visits - Laurie Berich

On Sunday September 16^th, the Graduate program in Educational Theater hosted a workshop led by Harlem’s own Jeremiah Drake. A multi-faceted artist and educator, Jeremiah currently runs a weekly Theater of the Oppressed workshop at Riverside Church for Harlem residents. He also works with Face to Face, an organization that provides free cosmetic surgery for battered women.

            Current students and alumni gathered in the NAC ballroom for an afternoon crash-course in Theater of the Oppressed. Jeremiah began the workshop beckoning us to “come closer,” a request he noted was a trademark of August Boal himself. He spoke to us of his life, his experience as a teaching artist in the Chicago Public School System, and his belief in the effectiveness of Forum Theater.

            Jeremiah stepped into the role of Joker, the name for the facilitator of a forum theater piece. Forum Theater differs from other forms of theater through its audience participation. Those present are both spectators and actors, cleverly combined to create the title “spectactor.” The process began asking for personal stories of oppression that we have either experienced or witnessed. After four or five suggestions we took a vote to decide which story we would explore.

            The story that was chosen was about being a witness to a mother verbally abusing her young child in a restaurant while onlookers sat idly by. Graduate student Todd Woodard, who had shared the story, was asked to play himself and to cast others in the scene. As Todd pulled spectactors into the playing space, Jeremiah handed each person a prop. These were pieces chosen at random including a gladiator helmet, a telephone, a sickle, a sombrero, and a tennis racket among other things. I noted that giving people who are “non-actors” a prop was a great technique. It immediately gives them something to do in the scene, taking away from the awkwardness of the spotlight.

            After the roles were cast, we moved into some image theater work. Jeremiah prompted each spectactor to create a frozen picture of their character. Drake called out “Don’t think, just do, 3,2,1!” to those who hesitated, and “Let the image speak!” to thought-track each character. The spectactors did a full run-through of the scene. Our Joker Jeremiah checked in with Todd for the accuracy of the scene, and gave him permission to change any element for the sake of accuracy. On the second run through in Forum Theater, any spectactor is allowed to yell out “Stop!” to freeze the scene. They then take the place of the protagonist to try a different approach in dealing with the conflict.

            After a few brave but failed attempts, Jeremiah lined up the remainder of spectactors for a “lightening forum.” At a rapid pace, each spectactor had about ten seconds to try their own version of conflict resolution. When we finally came to an end, the restaurant scene was mayhem and our oppressor was in handcuffs. For the third and final run-through, Todd stepped back into his role as the protagonist to utilize the tactics of the spectactors.

            At the end of the forum, Drake told us that the most important part of the process is in the exchange of ideas. We explored the issue of public child abuse at length, so now what? Forum Theater can be used to simply raise consciousness about an issue, or it can become legislative theater that is done in an effort to create or change a law. The group settled on a law that would fine anyone caught physically or verbally abusing a child in public. Drake intended to take this idea to a senator and invited anyone and everyone to join him if they wished.

            Leaving the workshop, I was left wondering how Forum Theater could be applied with students. Children and adolescents are not always given a voice or valued in discussion, and in this way they are an oppressed population. Perhaps Forum Theater can provide the opportunity and empowerment to have their voice heard and to actively participate in shaping the world around them.

A New School Year, An Alumni's Voice - Benjamin Posner

A New School Year, An Alumni's Voice 
Benjamin Posner

So there I was staring at a class of twenty-­‐five 1st graders on their first day of school. We stood there for a few moments, waiting for the other to move. We shared a look that said “I want my mommy.” I broke the silence and said “don’t worry, it will be alright.” I’m not sure who needed more convincing, them or me? Probably me.
Being a new teacher is a lot like being a new student. You don’t know anybody. You don’t know where to go. You don’t know what to do. It takes about a week to meet the rest of the faculty and staff, a couple days to figure out where everything is, and a few years to figure out what you’re doing. Or so I’m told.
And I hope its true because right now I have no idea what I’m doing. There’s nothing quite like the pressure 25 audiences a week all demanding entertainment, and a decent education. I will say that proper planning helps to guide me through each week, as well as early bedtimes and packed lunches. A good mentor helps too and I’m extremely lucky to have one at school that is not only committed to my success but the success of the arts in education. In fact, my school has band, chorus, dance, and theatre.
I feel like a member of the Avengers. I’m the rookie with his chest puffed up, trying not to look quite so green. But I am and there’s no use hiding. Even the students know, but just like the teachers, they are kind, and understanding, and patient.
There are trying times too. Times when my plans go awry with lessons that are too difficult or too simple. There are snags in my curriculum. And many times I have looked to my mentor for help in those situations. I cannot overstate how helpful the guidance and counsel of a veteran teacher can be. Most of the teachers at my school are veterans in the system and they are all extremely forthcoming with advice.
Aside from lesson planning, curriculum development, classroom organization and decorating, there is also administrative work like benefit and union enrollment, and payroll logistics. Teaching is part of the job, but it’s not everything. Teaching is what you get to do when you finished all your other work. It’s like dessert. It’s the reward you get after getting off the phone with human resources. I value my graduate training at CCNY above any other but I wish they (or anybody) offered a class in navigating the avenues of bureaucracy at the New York City Department of Education. My advice to anyone becoming a teacher is to deal with the DOE over summer BEFORE the school year starts. It will save you time and sanity.
But I don’t let the minutia detract from the excitement of my first year. Anyway I’m far too busy to busy myself with busy work. I occupy my time with lesson planning and learning the wildly different names of about 600 students. Their personalities are also wildly different and interesting and I am amazed at their level of enthusiasm for drama. It feels like they’ve embraced me, taken me under their wings. They look at me like they know what it’s like to be the new kid in school. They say “hi” in the hallways. They bring their parents to see me. They tell me I look like Superman and smell like Batman. So I guess I’m not an Avenger after all. 

The Rose is Set to Bloom Again....Kat DeLapp

The rose is set to bloom again . . .

The musical crescendo crashes to an end with a flourish, the curtain comes down on another great show, and the audience erupts into raucous applause and a standing ovation (as modern audiences are prone to do). As the ensemble appears for their curtain call, many actors get bouquets of roses to mark the occasion. Sound familiar?

Many of the candidates here in the Educational Theatre Department have left such a show hopefully moved by what they just saw or have felt the adrenaline pumping, joy and sense of accomplishment as a performer on stage; only left with their photos, memories, a playbill and perhaps a few flowers to remind them of this moment. The rose is a symbol of success and is given to actors because it stands for excellence; the epitome of a beautiful performance. But have you ever thought about the path a rose has to travel to be on that stage that night?

Annually, the rose bush must endure a rebirth. Gardeners prune back their prize rose shrubs to but a few barren shoots. They force this drastic change on the plant’s system with sharp sheers to reenergize it and enable it to grow anew, only bigger and stronger. However, the key to a beautiful rose isn’t so much in the flower or stem, but in the root structure. If the roots have developed over time to be strong and healthy, the next generation of roses blossom more vibrant and resilient than ever. So it is with our collective of artists in the CCNY Graduate Program in Educational Theatre.

The fall semester is indeed back in full swing on the CCNY campus (can you believe we’re already beginning the sixth week of classes?!)  At the end of last semester we were sad to see our graduates depart, our beautiful roses have moved on to spread their joy and love of theatre to young students. They have left their enduring mark on the program and people in our department. But filling their void are our incoming students who breathe new life and vitality into our program with their excitement, ambition, and innovation (the new shoots on our rose bush).

Along with these new bright and shiny buds are other flowers just starting to bloom. We would like to introduce the new officers of the Educational Theatre Club! The torch has been passed on to four second-year leaders who are enthusiastic and determined to make this year fantastic! They are Laurie Berich, Jessica Rosa Espinoza, Rob Dunn, and me - Kat DeLapp. We will also be mentored by the lovely EJ Lewell and Megan Ludlow, the clubs past officers who laid a solid foundation for us to nurture and build upon this year (along with recent graduate - Christine Gonzolas-DeJohn) They’re taking a step back this year to focus on student teaching, thesis writing, and motherhood ― all time consuming and noble pursuits!

The club has already been very busy this year hosting two successful events for the department. On September 30^th, we kicked off this semester with the biannual Welcome Back Pizza Party! We were over-the-moon excited over how many people came to show their support for the program. Faculty, veteran students, new students, and non-matriculated students all gathered together for a relaxing evening of chit chat and connections, all surrounded by the glorious smells of pizza.

The second event on our calendar was a workshop facilitated by guest artist Jeremiah Drake. Jeremiah came to us from Riverside Church where he is a 'Joker' or cultural animator bringing the work of Augusto Boal to the community through the active engagement of Theatre of the Oppressed to evoke social and political change.

If you missed these events, you haven’t missed out on everything the Educational Theatre Department has to offer in 2012-13.  There’s plenty more where that came from. The Ed Theatre Department is in full bloom this year with the number of exciting events and opportunities for our candidates. Here is a rundown of what you can look forward to this year from the Ed Theatre Club.

November 17th - Ed Theatre Dept Fundraising Performance

A fantastic opportunity for graduate students to share their artistry, collaborate & perform together to raise funds for the program.

December -          The Holiday Party

Tis’ the season for all of us to gather and celebrate our hard work at the end of another successful semester in the program

                                   

January 19-20-    The Ed Theatre Mini Conference

We will host a series of workshops featuring Jonathan Needlands and other practitioners to further our knowledge and promote CCNY’s Graduate Program in Educational Theatre as a budding new voice in the field.

January-               Spring Semester Kick Off Pizza Party

                                What better way to begin another semester than with pizza!?!

February 20-21- Face to Face Breakfast

                                Face to Face in an arts in education conference in NYC. As a club we will get together beforehand and host a breakfast!

April 27-                Family Arts Day

                                A fun-filled day with the community immersed in theatre, music, dance, visual arts and crafts! Open to the public.

We are also thrilled to introduce a new social aspect to the department this year. The four of us have decided that we genuinely enjoy everyone in our department and that it is a shame that we don’t get to spend time together outside of classes. We will be organizing a Monthly Social Gathering for the department as a way to decompress and get to know everyone in a relaxed, informal way. Essentially it is people coming together at a time that just happens to be around Happy Hour... convenient, right!? The locations will bounce around the boroughs to accommodate the varying schedules of our fellow candidates. Look for the emails!! The first Monthly Social Gathering will be held this Friday, September 28^th at the Beer Garden in Astoria, Queens.

As always we will keep the department updated on the Clubs events through emails, but we also strongly encourage our candidates to LIKE us on Facebook (The City College of New York Graduate Program in Educational Theatre) and FOLLOW us on Twitter (@CCNYEdTheatre) to get the latest information about the department and all the exciting news we have to share! You can also find information on the club and these events by checking out the programs website:

http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/prospective/education/educationaltheatre/index.cfm

So here’s to another great year at CCNY where your talent gets to blossom for the whole world to see! To quote Sondheim in Gypsy, let’s hope “everything’s coming up roses for you and for me” in 2012 -13!

New Student, New Year - Ben Compton

New Student, New Year

Ben Compton. 

I’m full of good intention.

           

I brim over with it.

           

Polysyllabic idealism pumps through my veins, creating a rising tide of well meaning, pseudo-intellectual chatter.

           

Ideas and justifications just spew out of me and ricochet around the room, pinging in and out of the ears of those closest to me.

“Am I blowing their minds with my radical ideas for non-profits?” I think to myself,  “Their eyes are glazed over. Have I impressed them into a catatonic stupor? Have I literally rewired their psyches with my lofty descriptions of the power of theatre education? Wait, I think they stopped paying attention 10 minutes ago. They’re probably thinking about something else. Should I stop talking? I’ll stop talking.”

This internal monologue rattles through my brain about 10 times a week. I’ll be out somewhere and someone will make the mistake of asking me what I want to do with my life. I answer, and I answer earnestly: “I’d like to start a non-profit theatre company that works with high-risk and underserved youth.” I’ll say, and before they can respond I’m off on a 10-minute explanation. I’m tearing up by the end, overwhelmed with my own idealistic purity.  By minute nine, I become increasingly embarrassed by my own emotional reaction and begin to back off. Before long, I’m like Marcel Proust’s Swann who makes an impassioned defense of literature and classical education, but immediately regrets that he has “allowed himself to speak, even in jest, of serious matters” the character then quickly retreats, adding ironically, "We are having a most entertaining conversation; I cannot think why we climb to these lofty summits."

            I don’t bring this up solely to drop Marcel Proust’s name into a blog entry (as legitimate as that motivation would be). I bring it up because it really easy for each of us to stand at the precipices of greatness but be suddenly undone by our own earnestness. We fear it because it can be embarrassing. We fear it because it lays us open to judgment of ourselves as artists and human beings. We fear it mostly because it makes us accountable for what we believe.

           

            Improv luminary Del Close instilled a three word mantra into his students – “Follow the fear.” Follow the fear in scenes where you are nervous that you will look foolish. Follow the fear in situations where you are scared of revealing too much. Follow the fear when you confront an emotional situation where you feel out of your depth. Always follow your fear. Chase it, confront it, thwack it on head, and hold it up to show it to others. Do all of this because in this fear is truth, and, as artists, comedians, teachers, and as people in general, truth should be our currency.

            I say this because I am afraid. I fear saying things like “I am an artist,” or “I am a teacher.” I fear these things because I believe in them with all of my heart, but I am scared that someone will tell me they aren’t true. But, I’m tired of ignoring these fears. I’m tired of letting them dominate me. I’m ready to follow my fears to where ever they take me.

            City College of New York’s (CCNY) Educational Theatre Program has been a great place to do this. Barely a month in, and I’ve already discovered a wonderful community of people who are relentlessly supportive and positive. Actors, teachers, writers, directors, dramaturges, stage managers, technical theatre experts, designers, practically every facet of theatre is represented in the students at this program. Each student is here to embrace their earnestness and follow their fear. Each one of us is connected by the simple idea that education (whether it be in the classroom or in an arts organization) makes the world a better place. The feeling that as teachers and theatre professionals, we have not only the ability, but also the obligation to reach out to our communities make positive changes in peoples lives unites us all.  The people I’ve met in my first month here (both students and faculty) are intelligent, committed, and eager to learn. Our classes are steeped in academic rigor and artistic play. In the first four weeks, I truly feel like I’m being activated as an artist and educator.

           

There’s one class that I wanted to highlight in particular. “Artistic Lab” is an informal class that meets Thursday nights and consists of students in their first semester and students who are finishing the program. Outside of being an opportunity for new students to get to know the program and see what’s in their future, the class is a time where we to explore our own art forms and share them with others. It’s a chance for us to celebrate what we do and to remember why we do it. It’s fun, silly, and refreshing.

           

People take risks in this program and that’s inspiring to see.       We barely know each other, and yet we’ve begun to share our talents, artistic aesthetics, and deeply held beliefs about the power of what we can accomplish. It’s wonderful, it’s educational, and it’s freeing. It’s also terrifying, but we’re learning as individuals and as a group to follow that fear and become the kind of artists, educators, advocates that celebrate earnest truth and doggedly work to bring theatre to individuals and communities who thirst for it.

            So, here I am, and I’m saying it. “I am an artist. I am an educator.”

Jennifer Katona, Program Director Blog Post

As I sit comfortably in my home and begin to reflect on the question asked of me for this post I am most struck by how fast time goes by.  I cannot believe I sit having completed the fifth year of the program.  I am proud to see how strong the ensemble we have created is and how wonderful it is to too our alumni return to sit on panels, serve as cooperating teachers, teach courses and collaborate on projects now in their professional capacity.  I am continuously grateful for the dedication of the faculty (both full-time thank you SOBHA) and adjunct faculty and student teaching supervisors who make themselves available to our candidates well beyond their pay grade :).   Though I could talk at length about all the work of the last five --I wanted to take a minute to officially wrap up the Spring 2012 semester.

What a FANTASTIC year we have had!! Congratulations to all the graduates you have worked really really hard for 2+ years and deserve all the success we know is in front of you.

We have had great performances with Megan Ludlow leading the successful fundraising campaign for Raise the Curtain and her production of Really Rosie as well as Mollie Lief and company performing their wonderful youth theatre production of the Tortoise and the Hare and this year's Family Arts Day.

A big shout out again to Kat DeLapp and Sobha for a truly amazing event with over 150 members of the Harlem Community in attendance.

This semesters research share was an inspiration and I am excited for the field of arts education to begin to learn of the innovative research being done at CCNY by its graduates.

Thank you again to Club Officers Megan Ludlow, EJ Jewell and Christine Gonzalez-DeJohn for a wonderful semester coordinating the Johnny Saldana workshop, Mini Conference and the festive end of semester party.

June 25th the Program in Educational Theatre is proud to host the end of the year reception for the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable from 4-7 in the NAC Ballroom and we hope you can join us!!! Great way to network and learn more about the field at large.

We are excited to welcome 20 new graduates in the Fall -we had a lot of applicants this year and are very happy with the new cohort and believe they will be a wonderful addition to our ensemble!!

We are also excited to announce that in the Fall semester the Program in Educational Theatre will be piloting a new innovative approach to student teaching. We are proud to say we have hired Mina Hartong in a part-time capacity to oversee Student Teaching observations and seminar. We feel strongly that this new system will mainstream the student experience and strengthen the connection between K-12 classroom and our graduate work -welcome Mina!

If you are heading to Kentucky for AATE come back informed, if you are heading to the beach come back restored, if you are heading to the theatre come back inspired!!