MattJ over at theatre conversation and political frustration has a great article on the state of theatre in education today.

Having been a high school theatre teacher, I must admit that he has some valid points. That having been said, I don’t think the answer is eliminating the programs in high schools, but changing the focus of these programs from production (which is the easy trap to fall into for theatre teachers with limited experience) to…stay with me…education! These young actors (and even some in the early years of the undergraduate programs) need to have their focus shifted from production to truly learning how to evaluate their own process and experiences on stage and learn from them. The problem is that most high school theatre teachers and undergraduate professors don’t want to take the time to do this because it’s easier to work with students who already have “talent” and will therefore make their productions look better.

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