Preface

In my first year as a master student we had the opportunity to write a manifesto of sorts. A passionate piece of writting that tackles the idea that theatre is X but really it should be Y.


Immediately i knew what I wanted to write about: Jaded Theatre Teachers.


I have yet to meet a person who, when I say "we've all had that drama teacher..." doesn't respond with some sort of empathetic-PTSD groan. And that is the very issue. I have heard far too many out-of-work actors, directors, and playwrights alike lament: "The phone isn't ringing - I guess I'll just become a teacher." Cut to these individuals in an education environment they have no passion or drive for, throwing staplers at middle schoolers because they (the jaded adult) lack the skills to educate their students properly.


What follows is a response to the attitude that education is a backup plan. When, on the contrary, pedagogy should be approached with the utmost care and attention.


My favorite part: when performed live it is read by a second grader.

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. - Mr. Rodgers

 This manifesto is written to be performed by a children under the age of 10

The Problem

The lights dim, a curtain opens, one kid is picking his nose, another waves to her mom. We see a single microphone on the stage, one of the littlest ones walks up to the microphone and speaks:

This is when a little kid will begin speaking

Please be kind to us. Care about us! We are not an after thought or a backup plan. We are the next wave of creativity, revolution and dialogue. Don’t you care about that? Or as artists and “theatre makers” are you too concerned with the validation and self obsession of your own so called “passion projects” that you’ve forgotten the rule of leaving a place better than you found it.

Theatre for young audiences should be for young audiences, not a stepping stone for the egos of jaded has-beens or never was-ez. We are losing risk, truth, accessibility, imagination, and authenticity in the pursuit of programing or funding to keep programs afloat.We have had too many directors yell at us, call us names, and even swear at us. Out of desperation, you hire people who claim to be qualified on paper with F’s in their qualifications (MFA, BFA) - but they are mean to us. I’m only (insert child’s age here). You think that their pedagogy impresses me? Impresses us? You think we care? You think a world-weary-wash-up will make us want to stay with this theatre thing you love so much? You claim there is value in the arts but all I’m getting is yelled at and stifled. Where is the value in that? Where are the Mr. Rodgers lovers? There have to be people that bother with us. You keep giving us these bullies and calling them “visiting artists” - it speaks volumes about how much you actually care about us.

But that’s the problem isn’t it?  You’ve stopped nurturing the love of theatre education in people who care about kids and the magic of theatre and imagination. Too many theatre artists go through so-called rigorous programs, get BFAs or MFAs — then, when “the work” isn’t calling, they default to children’s theatre as a supplemental “money job.”We deserve better than questionable and unkind souls degrading our confidence and claiming it is ‘directorial growth.” But you won’t do it. Just this week I overheard two grown ups saying “don’t tell anyone you want to be in theatre education - no one will take you seriously after that”. But shouldn’t that be the most crucial? Teaching students dialogue and discourse in the form of musical theatre? Theatre that was once a rebellion and gave voices to the voiceless has been degraded to after school care with competition, ego, and spotlight at their center.


The Purpose

We need to rediscover the love we had at first, a love for feather boas, and tap shoes, props as toys and stages as playgrounds. That’s what this is supposed to be. What a world it would be if children's theatre was fun and playful, joyful and full of heart — imaginative, even! Rather than cut short because “no one has ever wanted a longer children’s musical.” What if children's theatre, and theatre for young audiences was a spectacular that gifted adults a moment of reprieve from adulthood - better yet a moment for us to hold on to our imaginations beyond the church stage and confidently take it into classrooms and boardrooms and homes. Allowing us to think creatively, speak courageously. Theatre should leave kids feeling powerful and adults inspired.We don’t just want , we need children's theatre that amplifies the power of childlike imagination. We need teaching practitioners who foster the talents, curiosities, and hearts of children - not break them down to stand on their necks for a momentary breath of self-satisfaction. Theatre should leave kids feeling powerful and adults inspired.

It is the biggest blindspot of the form of theatre to not invest in compassionate and caring theatre education and then wonder why the arts have been defunded. I can all but guarantee lawmakers were in a school play once - and hated it - we probably didn’t give congressmen speaking roles, the athletes a chance to move. We have let our concern for aesthetics ruin it’s function - to move the public as well as the participants. 


The Roadmap

So what do we do? 

Stand Center and pretend to be a bad teacher (think Ms. Trunchbull)

Repeat after me boys and girls!

Stand UP Maggots!

Not like that, face the front - THE FRONT!!

Now as a good teacher 

That’s the problem right there - See that doesn’t feel nice.

Please, stand with me. Let’’s do this together.

Begin 

We commit

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To encouraging youth education as a valid first path

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and fostering the hearts of student driven education. 

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We refuse to deny educators opportunities to learn in favor of another student who, let's be honest, won't make it. 

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We commit to fighting to fund the arts in public spaces. 

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We will trade ego for education.

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We will slow down and recognize that kids are simply kids. 

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We will encourage them in challenge, with a spirit of patience.

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We will hold our teaching artists to a higher standard of pedagogy with efficient, effective and compassionate communication styles. 

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We will be more than nice. We will be kind.

You may be seated

Theatre can still be revolution, politic, aesthetic, entertainment, and all of it’s more beloved parts - we cannot, and furthermore, will not look down on children because they are young, they are wise, kind, brilliant, and all the best parts of what mankind used to be.

It's called a play - so why don't we get to play? Educate us accordingly.


Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. - Mr. Rodgers