Looking Back at My Earliest Projects

Receiving wisdom from Lowell Swortzell
Rehearsals for Lucky Peter's Journey
February 2000

A few months ago, I was cleaning out an old filing cabinet in the education office at Writers Theatre. In one drawer was a series of teaching artist files and resumes from actors/directors with whom we've worked in the last 20 years. One of the last folders in there was mine, which contained my original letter of application and resume. It was remarkable to look back at some of my earliest work in the graduate program at NYU, particularly two TYA directing projects: a staged reading of Lucky Peter's Journey adapted by my mentor, Lowell Swortzell, and a devised, collaborative piece called The Greenwich Village Project.

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Needle in a Haystack

My first memorable theatre experience was in 3rd grade when a visiting opera company performed a scene called "I Hate Men" in which the main character, a female teacher, shot dead her male colleagues. However questionable the subject matter, I was hooked and began writing my own scripts. Fast forward 15 years and I was working on the nearly defunct NJ Young Playwrights Festival, providing feedback to young writers in grades 4-12.

In conducting research, the history of the field's development has fascinated me. I have written about that history in an article published in ArtsPraxis and occasionally on the blog for the Young Playwrights Map. Yet this writing is limited to a history of programming influenced by the work done within the national young playwrights competition that eventually became Young Playwrights, Inc. (YPI) founded by composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and developed by the late director, Gerald Chapman. While the influence of Sondheim and Chapman's work in the field cannot be denied, there have been instances of youth creation of plays prior to the national program at YPI in 1981.

Child performers, Federal Theatre Project
Gary, Indiana

Most noted of these earlier programs is the Marilyn Bianchi Kid's Playwriting Festival at Dobama Theatre in Cleveland begun in 1979. In fact, Cleveland seems to have been an incubator of early work in theatre for young audiences through the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) and Playhouse Square. I'm hoping to get my hands on a copy of Showtime in Cleveland by John Vacha to learn more about that. I am also in search of a piece of information that I swear was in my original dissertation research, but can no longer find: evidence that one of the FTP units (Gary, Indiana perhaps) directly engaged students in writing their own scripts. The unit in Gary had children performing work, so it makes the most sense, but correspondence with a scholar who has studied the FTP in Indiana has me questioning that possibility. Learning about Cleveland's history brings my attention to that unit. I also believe there were playwriting programs for youth in Boston and/or Vermont in the 1960s that may have been precursors to the current competitions and festivals in those areas.

I will keep eyes and ears open for that needle in a haystack. Any leads or ideas are most certainly welcome.

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Rolling for Classroom Engagement

Last year, I returned to the high school classroom after a 15 year hiatus. The schedule was part-time and solely focused on a series of Acting classes. This year, my schedule includes sophomore English and a co-taught humanities-centered class in the school's Leadership Academy. I've enjoyed the new challenges in this work, particularly inspiring students to engage and share in the English classroom. (Theatre students aren't hesitant to share; in fact, it is possible they may share too often!)

As a shy, introverted student myself, I am sensitive to the hesitation and discomfort that teenagers may have about being called upon to answer questions, or (gasp!) read out loud. One solution I've found is in randomizing the way in which students are selected for these tasks.

The first step is always to ask for volunteers, but that typically brings crickets to the room. Another teacher had suggested writing student names on popsicle sticks and drawing those from a jar. Instead, the process in my classroom has been further randomized by a series of cards and a pair of foam dice (that I stole from my children).

 

Foam Dice from Dollar Tree

At the beginning of class, I pass around a set of 24 cards that are numbered from 2-12. Each number is written twice. When it comes time for a question, or to read aloud, I roll the dice and the students holding the resulting number must decide if they want to volunteer to read/answer, or battle it out in a best-of-3 bout of rock/paper/scissors. The card is collected from whomever ends up reading/answering and the next time the number is up, the other person holding it has no choice but to respond. I've been doing this for about two months and it has worked very well. The students are excited by the anticipation of the dice roll and love the rock/paper/scissors battle. What's best is that not one person has refused to read/answer in this format. Thanks to the folks in the weekly #games4ed Twitter chat for sparking my interest in "gamifying" the classroom!

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