Imanee Gordon
Theatre Education
Introduction
My major is theatre education and I've created this project to show how theatre can impact students' lives in school and out of school.
Overview of Your Major
The reason I created my major was to become a drama teacher. I started as just a theatre major. I was gonna focus on technical theatre but I realized I would love to teach elementary, middle, and high school. But Plymouth doesn't have a theatre education major and the only option I was given at the time was to double which I couldn't afford. In sophomore year someone told me about interdisciplinary studies and I quickly changed my major. Through interdisciplinary, I was able to take theatre and education courses. Theatre courses taught me about directing and more technical aspects of theatre that I would need to know to create a show. While my education course taught me about how children developed and how they learn and different ways of teaching. I hope to one day either get my master's in theatre education or get my teaching certificate and become a drama teacher. But before all of that, I want to take some more time working in drama productions to get more experience working with students.
Explanation of Your Project
I made a website to show educators, parents, and even students how impactful theatre can be. For my project, I went back to my old high school( Laconia High School) and became the children's director for their show. The show they're doing is Beauty and the Beast they are still currently working on and it does not come out until June 1. On my website, you can find notes I took from watching rehearsals and working with some students on their production. I did some research about the benefits of theatre for students. I also provide some other links to other websites I found about theatre benefits. interviewed some students and asked questions like” How do you balance theatre and school? Or How has theatre affected you?”. I attended as many rehearsals as I could because I was also working on another show here at Plymouth. But I was there on Thursdays from 7-9 and some days I was there from 4-6
Revised Pieces of Writing
Capstone Project
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For my capstone project, I will create a website that shows evidence of what I did and what I learned while working with Laconia High School on the production of Beauty and the Beast. Looking back on my capstone project description, I wish I had more time to do things. I wish I asked some of the questions I put in my capstone project. But didn’t have enough time to get permission to take pictures of the students I worked with. But I feel that I’ve done what I set out to do not only that, but I got experience in the field that I wanted to.
While interviewing students, I found that a few of them wanted to pursue a career in theatre for musical theatre or acting, which I thought was amazing. A couple of them want to come to Plymouth to pursue a career in theatre. I did also interview a recent graduate and college graduate, who has stuck with theatre. To hear about their experiences working with other theaters and how it affected them was very interesting.
I wasn’t able to be there as much as I wanted because I got sick and rehearsals got canceled. Also, I was working on other productions here. But I could take notes and work with groups of students which helps me understand that working with students of different age ranges is kind of difficult. Fun but difficult finding a middle ground for them was interesting, but I feel like they learned that concentrating and listening is something they need to work on. I think they learned this through the games I played with them.
Even though I wasn’t able to take pictures, I got permission to use photos from the drama page to use for my website, which was helpful. This experience was extremely helpful and I can’t wait to see how their hard work paid off.
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Project Reflection
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So far I’m dragging on my project. The end of this month especially is just the hardest because I have lots of projects to do and I just feel like I don’t have a lot of time to do them. I felt extremely stressed and unmotivated just because another class was causing me a lot of stress. I felt like I was falling behind because I was sick. Nothing at the time made sense to me. My brain feels like mud at the moment. I can’t find much for capstones just like mine, but I found a project where a student from Merrimack College did a project on Theatre and Mental Health: The Arts as a Necessary Role in Education. Although she talks about mental health, I think we would both agree that theatre and arts are important for education. Because theatre can become a safe space for some students to go to when they need somewhere that is not home. I’ve decided that my project is going to be a website where I post all the things I’ve learned/experienced while working at Laconia High school. I’m also going to post my research there, plus I’m going to interview some students. And a past professor about what she thinks about theatre and education. I’m also going to make a permission form so I can take pictures of this website. I’m hoping to get all this done by the deadline. I plan to take this one step at a time and not get too stressed out about everything.
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College Experience
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In the beginning, I planned to go to Plymouth for nursing until I realized I didn’t want to spend my life as a nurse. But that’s what my mother wanted me to do, and I should work for something that I would ultimately not like doing. So I changed my major to theatre tech, but they offered nothing that would help me become a drama teacher. I spent two years trying to figure out how I combine the two majors without double majoring. For a long time, that seemed like that was my only option. Every advisor or person I met didn’t help me. Double majoring would have been the worst decision for me for a few reasons: 1. I won’t be able to pay for it and 2. The workload was probably going to kill me mentally. During my sophomore year, someone finally directed me towards interdisciplinary studies. It was an enormous relief for me when I found this major. It was just frustrating emailing and meeting with people that were not helping me. I felt like it lifted a weight off my shoulder because I was trying to find a good way to tell my mom I changed my major. I felt she would understand this better than it just being theatre.
My degree is now in Theatre Education. I created my major by looking up different schools that have this major, then I spent some time looking at classes that were almost the same. I also tried to balance the classes so I wouldn’t be taking a lot of theatre classes compared to education classes. There was a good balance between the two. The only problem that I had with my education courses was that some topics we were working on didn’t pertain to what would help me with a theatre education degree. I learned a lot about child development and behaviors and that helped me, but they geared these classes towards students who are becoming regular teachers. There was one class that combined education and theatre, but that was a graduate-level course and at the time my GPA wasn’t high enough to join the class. I wish there was another class kind of like it or maybe teach the class at a lower level because that class would have benefited me greatly. It devastated me when I couldn’t take this class because after I’ve done all my finals, my GPA was high enough that I could but the class was full and I also don’t know if they would have let me take that course.
I hope to get a job either in the summer or in the fall, working with one of my professors at the Shakespeare company. Learning more about directing and their approach to directing their shows. I was also thinking about getting my master’s at Emerson college in theatre education. I would want to give myself a break in between getting that degree or getting my teacher certification. My other plan was to just go job hunting once done working with the Shakespeare company. I’ll hopefully make some connections with that job and find some internships or other people I could work with for a little while. Theatre work in college differs from theatre work at a company, which is why I want to gain more experience. I understand that in the beginning, I’ll be working odd jobs, but I need the experience and at some point, I’ll find a job that I want as a drama teacher. I’ve decided not to be so stressed about work because I know if I spend too much time thinking about it, I’ll end up putting myself down. So I just want to take things one at a time.
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Conclusion
Looking back on all the hard work I've done to complete this assignment and create my major I feel so proud of myself. I won’t lie in the beginning. I was stressed because I've just had a lot on my plate this semester and nothing was going how I wanted it to be but everything came together in the end. The most difficult part of this project for me was making the website. I would end up spending hours getting everything to look the way I wanted it to. It still kinda doesn't look the way I want it to but I did my best with it.
Thinking back to freshman year I kind of had no clue what I was doing or how to achieve my goals. I was through the motions I focus on doing all my gen eds first with a few theatre classes. Now I know exactly what I want to do. It took me two years to get there but I finally did it. I feel more secure than during freshman year. I've changed so much and I learned so much. i
Well, I believe that you can't have theatre without education, you have to learn many skills to be involved in theatre and most people learn these skills from their drama teacher who in turn learned them from someone else. Education is a big aspect of theatre because a lot of the time you're working with young children and young adults to teach them anything you need to understand how they learn and how they develop.
My project fits amazingly well with my major because I can showcase the work I did to make it and I can show people not just how I feel about theatre but how students do as well. And what theatre does do for people like me and the students that I worked with at the time?
I'm currently working with Laconia high school until their show comes out in June. I will be helping them build their set and working more with students. I’m excited to see how the show will go. Everyone has put a lot of effort into this and I want everything to go well for them. After the show is over I will be going on vacation for a couple of weeks. Then in July, I will be working with Jessie Chapman at a summer camp for theatre. While I'm there I hope to make more connections and learn a lot from Jessie and the other people working there.