Monthly Archives: December 2015

On Friday, I was in need of a little medical help to pay attention to a knee that is not seeing me well into the future.  Luckily a little physical therapy and some rather horrible looking needles should set me right.  But a day out of school. . .  When I was younger this was a day to crave.  I am not sure why because I loved school – but I sensed that all of the cool kids valued every day away from school. Read more →

One primary indicator of how long you have been teaching is the number of t-shirts you have in the closet. Every time you go to anything competitive there is a t-shirt. Every big event at a school – every senior graduating class – every year – in every season there is a t-shirt. And of course you have to take it. It would be rude to refuse – much as if you refusing the food at a friend’s dinner party. You gotta take one. Of course knowing you will never wear it – – it will hang in your closet in perpetuity. There will come a time to thin out a closet and you will pull all of these t-shirts out of the closet only to realize that there are names and faces attached to all of these shirts – and they really are in perfect shape – and you really may need something to wear when, in a most unlikely event, you decide to paint the house. So, back on hangers and back into the closet. Read more →

Over my years I have collected a group of phrases that capture what I am looking for when coaching actors in scenes. One of my favorites is “Up and Out.” A challenge that I find with young actors is that they may have something real going on inside them – but they lack the ability to get this emotional energy up and out so that it can be shared by an audience. It has been very difficult for me to communicate this with student actors. What often happens is they end up pushing so hard that the moment is forced and ruined – or they give up the energy and the moment falls flat on the floor at their feet. Read more →

This is the time of year that seniors are writing and organizing letters to enclose with their college applications. Back in the day, colleges applications used to ask for a simple letter asking for you to introduce yourself to the admissions department of the college. Now the letters have gotten much more complex. Now they are asking students to write about defining moments in their life. They are asked to write about the moment they fell in love with theatre. They are asked to write about the value of theatre to the world they live in. I am often stumped by how I would write one of their required essays. Read more →

One of the most wonderful things about teaching theatre – at least teaching here – is the freedom from a set timeline. I love to be able to gauge the pace and subject matter not by some arbitrary deadline but by the faces and wins in my class. I pity the poor teacher who is mandated to teach this unit and teach it only for a set amount of days- -then give a set test on a set date and begin the next set unit on a set day. How in the world does that solve the challenge of matching the teaching methods to the students that are in your charge? Read more →