Theater is Life, Film is Art, TV is Furniture

Many of us can attribute our path to the theater to a dynamic teacher in school: the teacher that inspired us or showed us a new side of ourselves. This series is a snapshot of today's high school theater educators across the country sharing about what they do and how and why they do this work.

My job is amazing. I absolutely love, love, love teaching theater. Currently, we offer five theater classes in my high school: Theatre I, Theatre II, Theatre in Action, Technical Theatre, and Auditioned Theatre.

Theatre I introduces students to theater and increases their confidence. We play theater games, learn theater vocabulary, perform scenes and monologues, and finish with a ten minute play as the final. The class is tons of fun. I wish it wasn’t just a semester long because there is so much more I would love to teach.

Theatre II picks up where Theatre I leaves off—with acting. We focus on the “pros”—Shakespeare, Miller, Simon, Ibsen, Moliére. We delve into theater history. And we finish with a one act play as the final for this class. This class is harder than Theatre I. I tell the students it is the “actor’s theater class.”

Theatre in Action has been difficult for me to develop. What does Theatre in Action even mean? I decided that it is going to focus on playwriting. We spend about four weeks playing improv games that require the students to think about what they are saying and to understand the “rules” of the stage. After that, we move on to writing scene spurs—that is we look at photographs and write monologues and scenes based on those photos. Next, the class picks a theme for a vignette play. Once we have our theme, we write scenes and monologues and create our own play. The final for this class is to perform our original play.

I have watched students succeed. I have watched them fail. I have cried, laughed, and hoped with them. I have cared for them. I have attended their weddings. I have become a part of their family and they have become a part of mine. This is why I have the best job.

Technical Theatre is all about the tech side. We begin by reading a play. When we are finished, the students create costumes (renderings as well as fabric swatches), they design a set (they build a three-dimensional scale model inside a printer box as well as create a floor plan), they plot the lights, and they create the publicity for the play (they design an original poster and program and write up a news release). They also learn about make-up design and props. For the final each student is assigned a one-act play and they have to present a set, costumes, and publicity for their play.

Auditioned Theatre is my favorite class. I am able to hand pick twenty kids to be in this class. These kids perform a series of one-act plays for the middle school next door, for the health classes, for breakfast with Santa. They are constantly performing. It is so much fun.

There are many reasons why teaching theater is fantastic—the main reason is the kids. I get to watch them discover who they are and develop as people. This happens in moments.

Those moments when students realize they are capable of more than they dreamed possible.

That moment when students realize that acting is hard and good acting is extremely difficult.

Those moments when football players and cheerleaders admit that learning a dance routine for the musical is harder work than their sports practice.

Casting a student for the first time and making them see they can perform.

That moment when a kid, who has nowhere else to go and doesn’t belong, finds a home in theater.

Pushing a student to audition for college.

Those moments where you meet up for coffee years after a student graduated from high school because high school theater meant the world to them.

That moment when you notice you haven’t seen the sun in five days because you arrive to work before sunrise and leave after sunset.

All those moments. All those students.

I have watched students succeed. I have watched them fail. I have cried, laughed, and hoped with them. I have cared for them. I have attended their weddings. I have become a part of their family and they have become a part of mine. This is why I have the best job.