Monthly Archives: November 2015

The one culprit that robs to much of the potential creativity in the theatre department is the lack of wonderful, wholesome, delicious sleep. It seems ironic that at the very age sleep is needed to grow and develop we are depriving teenagers. It’s easy to see that teenagers truly do need to eat, study, and exercise – but they also need to sleep. I have found that the best creativity that I am capable only comes after a full nights sleep – or even better DURING a full night’s sleep. Read more →

Sitting out here in the courtyard as students bustle in and out between their events, I ask myself who of all of these students was I most like when I was their age attending this very same competition in Colorado. I can’t find the face but I remember the table. Read more →

I was sitting at a rather unforgiving picnic table large enough to have its own zip code. It was metal; long ago they gave up providing wood tables for school courtyards. I was watching the stuff of a dozen teenagers as they trotted off to their various thespian competition rooms. I was in charge of making sure that old lunches and flat sofa did not get up and walk away. As they rushed back to the table I felt a split in time. Read more →

In the newly created Directing class, I am trying some brand new things when it comes to play analysis. In the past, I had always started with the simple classic play analysis when the play was read; a major dramatic curve was penned, and then you tackled the play bit by bit to the very last page – – giving each beat/section a name, a protagonist and a resolution. It was a lot of work – and certainly necessary work – but is it the first work that needs to be done? Read more →

She looked at the paper. She should never have looked at the paper. It was not her work, and she was going to pretend that it was her work. She was inviting trouble and much more then the low grade she was likely to get. I always have trouble when I catch students cheating on tests. I really am unsure how to present the problem – – do I become the heavy handed discipline who just writes them off – – or the more understanding give-them-a-second-chance kind of guy? Read more →