The State of Theatre in Education…
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.
Got a comment? Post it here or throw it to us over in the Green Room!
February 2nd, 2006 at 10:34 am
Don’t even start me on the quality of TIE…
February 2nd, 2006 at 11:46 am
OH go ahead! We’d all love to hear it!
February 3rd, 2006 at 9:34 am
I’m talking only about the UK here so forgive me if this is wrong about the rest of the globe.
It is the only area of work that pays a decent wage but is more like hack work than doing a 9-5 in an office.
Why? Simple, the people who pump all the money into TIE don’t want art they want something like Brecht’s lehrstucke; tedious, art-less hectoring of children on how to cross the road etc.
if you don’t tick the boxes you don’t get the funding so out goes the creativity and in comes people who don’t know shit telling theatre makers the hoops they have to jump through to make TIE.
But the beast is fed by desperate actors doing TIE cuz its the rare job that pays enough to live (£350/$595pw).
Rant over.
February 3rd, 2006 at 5:56 pm
Just to clarify some terms. TIE in the UK is a very specific (and I agree a not very effective and generally didactic (not aesthetic) practice) form of theatre where teaching artists stage a issue-based play scenario that they the develop on the spot with a class. (I’m American so I have only read about it/seen videos of it being facilitated.) theatre education in the US suffers from an identity crisis. What Tee is referring to, teaching the artform/of theatre to young artists, would likely be DIE or drama in education in the UK if I remember my graduate school textbook acronyms correctly. TIE seems to exist only on the other side of the ocean, and personally, while I am glad some artists can make a living from it, it can stay there.
February 3rd, 2006 at 7:13 pm
Thanks for the input Julee!
I would argue that in a kind of perverse way, most high school “drama” in this country is a bastardized form of what is going on overseas. However, instead of doing all of this stuff in the classroom (even if geared toward performance), they are doing it with their production seasons–and yes, most of them have a season of more than one show. The shows are not necessarily chosen for the challenges they provide to the students, but rather how much money will be made for their departments via the box office receipts.
The bottom line is that most of these departments find themselves trying to do more with less and the box office is the only way they can offset their budget cuts. The only lesson to be learned form this is what a difficult business this is. It’s just a shame that the kids don’t get to see that side of it when they are in a high school show.
Also, to be fair, there are high school departments in this country who put on some absolutely amazing shows, but they seem to be relying on pure untrained talent rather than training the “less than talented” students to achieve performances of a similar quality.
Ultimately, a public performance of some kind has to be the test of what they have learned in the classroom…assuming that they have actually been taught something there.
This is what most college professors are dealing with, especially at the undergraduate level, and I’m able to look at this from both sides. Young undergrads are having to go through a process of unlearning the bad habits they picked up in high school–mostly from teachers who had a degree in English or Speech (or worse yet, one of the athletic coaches needed to add another class to his schedule in order to appear to be more valuable to the school).
Again, I don’t think doing away with high school theatre training is the answer. Rather, I think that a national AP course load in theatre taught by teacher who have either real-world experience or at least a Masters in theatre.
Sorry for the rant. You can blame Julee, she got me started…