2023 Tony Award Recepient
Excellence in Theatre Education Award

I came to teaching with a desire to push others to see more in themselves than what they see looking back at them when they look in the mirror.  And while I have found a love and a passion for theatre education, the irony is that I am not someone that would be considered a “theatre person.” 

 

My 24 year old self walked across the stage as I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Secondary English envisioning myself standing on desk tops and having students cry out “Oh Captain, My Captain” as if I were John Keating, played by Robin Williams, in Dead Poet’s Society.  I was going to be the English teacher that changed the world… one kid at a time!

 

I was the kid that barely graduated high school.  And had it not been for Mr. Mullarney-Yano, my high school English teacher, I don’t think I would have ever made it.  And even though we never had long deep heart to heart conversations in which I bared my soul to him about what I was going through at home, he was able to see past my feigned apathy and lack of interest in the world around me.  He didn’t see my bare minimum attempts to pacify, or my irregular attendance, or my attempt to fade into the background.  He saw potential.  He saw me.

 

And this is what I wanted to do for others.

 

During my undergraduate studies, I chose to participate in an “inner city student teaching program.”  I knew I wanted to work with the kids that so many didn’t.  After all, I was one of those kids – just for different reasons.

 

After graduating, I accepted a teaching position at Lauderhill Middle School in Fort Lauderdale.  At the time, the student population was predominantly on the free lunch program and the “school grade” was less than desirable.  I felt like this was the place for me and that I could really make a difference.  However, after two years of electives that I wasn’t prepared to teach because I had no experience or training, including Drama, I heard of an opening for a full-time English teacher at Stranahan High School, which was essentially right down the road.

 

At the conclusion of what was a truly wonderful interview, I was asked if I would consider being the Drama Club sponsor since I “had experience” teaching it at the middle school level.  And while what I wanted to say was “no way” and “while it’s on my resume, I really had no idea of what I was doing,” what came out of my mouth was “of course!”  After all, I needed a job!  Besides, how bad could it be?  At least my full time teaching assignment was English.

 

However, instead of finding students standing on desks, I discovered them drooling on them instead.  And while I thought I was nothing short of brilliant and awe-inspiring, I soon discovered that I had no idea of what I was doing.  And I was miserable.

 

Why weren’t the kids hanging on my every word?  Wasn’t my passion for literature and the art of communication enough?  Apparently not.

 

But when I was just about to throw in the towel and figure out what my next career path would be, up walked a small gaggle of kids asking me if I was the new “drama teacher.”  I quickly told them that I was not but that I was going to be the sponsor for the drama club. 

 

It was this group of kids that changed my life.  And more specifically, one young man that for the purposes of this writing, I will call “Alan.” 

 

Man, these kids were persistent.  And even though I didn’t really want to, they convinced me to “put on a show.”  So I went to the library, since this was before the days of Amazon Prime, and checked out a book on “how to direct a high school show.”  No joke.  I really did.

 

I chose a show called Murder in The House of Horrors.  I made sure that I picked a show that nobody would know because I didn’t want to be discovered that I had no clue of what I was doing.

 

Then came auditions.  I think there were about 30 kids or so that showed up, Alan being one of them.  And to be frank, he was one of the nicest kids, but he was awful!  You see, Alan was a struggling reader.  And when I say that he was struggling, he was STRUGGLING!

 

A cast was assembled, Alan was cast as a security guard who had no lines, and rehearsals began.  It was a nightmare!  Every day, somebody “couldn’t make it” or “had to drop out.” And each time someone was absent, we would have to have someone else, usually Alan, read in their lines.  And it was agonizing.  When it came time for him to read, you could hear the groans of the other kids, knowing that it was going to be painful to listen to.

 

After about a month of this, I finally decided to pull the plug and told the kids that I was cancelling the show but would choose another one based upon who was regularly attending. 

 

To be honest, I don’t remember the title of the second show that I chose, because I had to cancel this one as well for the same reasons.  But what I do remember is Alan.  And I remember the day that this kid, who we all dreaded having to read in for a missing actor, dropped my chin to the floor. 

 

It was a rehearsal just like the others, but this time, when Alan was called on to read in for someone missing, the kid that “could hardly read,” was eloquently delivering lines that he had never read out loud before as if he were the most seasoned of actors and had been cast in the role all along.  So at the end of rehearsal, I, of course, pulled him aside and asked him about it.  He responded by telling me that he knew that he was pulling everyone down around him so he took the script home and memorized all of the lines to all of the characters.  I had no idea of what to say other than something trivial like “great job.”  And that was when it hit me.

 

Theatre is ensemble.  When a student fails her English class or his math class, the only one that is hurt by this is the individual student who fails.  However, in the theatre, when one person fails, everyone does.  The actor that messes up their lines messes everyone up around them, both on and off stage.  When a light board operator zones out and forgets to execute a light cue, same thing.  In the theatre, there is an authentic ownership and responsibility that doesn’t come with being in the classroom.

 

Alan showed me this.

 

After this second show was cancelled, we finally were able to put together something worth seeing.  The show was called Nuts, Bolts, and Carnations.  And Alan was one of the leads in the show.

 

As for the gaggle of kids that originally approached me…

 

Several of them were the same kids that were in my English classes, drooling on the desks.  I couldn’t get them to read George Orwell’s Animal Farm but all I had to do was mention that I might direct another show… perhaps a Shakespeare (again… I had no idea of what I was doing) and they were getting together over the summer to read the plays I had mentioned in passing as the first year of my teaching high school English came to a close.

 

So with my new found inspiration and the knowledge of how powerful accountability and expectations can be, especially when combined with an area of interest, I moved from the English classroom and into the Drama classroom and decided that it was time for me to actually figure out “what I was doing.” 

 

Alan by the way ended up graduating high school after his second senior year and was the first in his immediate family to do so.  He is now a dad, a professional actor, and a model.

 

More than 25 years later with a Master’s Degree in Directing and enough miscellaneous graduate credits to earn a second Master’s Degree, I can honestly say that I still don’t know if I know what I’m doing, but the journey is what it is all about. 

 

And I wouldn’t change a thing.