THE INTERVAL: When lyricist Jenny Stafford was growing up, her father traveled around the world helping impoverished children in the poorest countries. She was drawn to theatre and grappled with her love of this art form while “growing up in a house where literally going around the world and helping people was happening.” Stafford used to spend a lot of time as a child trying “to justify what I am doing, why am I doing it, why does it matter.”
4 comments:
I often struggle with the fear or worry that theatre isn't as far reaching as other forms of service, that is can only help a very small group of people and isn’t really effective at bringing about change. But time and again there are stories of the really cool work that people are doing in theatre that is reaching out beyond the traditional theatre audiences and working to make the world a better place. And this is one of those stories. One of the struggles in diversifying theatre is that often in minority neighborhoods and schools there never was a theatre for kids to go to and get inspired to create that kind of art the rest of their lives. That’s why I agree with Jenny that teaching artists are so important. To not only do art for the final product but use it to teach others, especially children is so good for the formation of the future of so many people’s lives.
Learning anything in the younger age can influence people's values and identities greatly because they are still flexible and more willing to accept the learning. Therefore, theater in younger ages could be a great opportunity to learn how to express yourself and also how to cooperate and communicate with others, which we often find could be difficult to internalize in later years. According to the article, in addition to the kids learning lifelong lessons, the teaching artists themselves can gain inspirations from teaching experience, directly serve the community and find valuable meanings in their lives. Especially because as theater artists usually have more than average chances to look into and analyze human interactions, delve into emotions and recognize social issues through productions, they can give a useful means to find your identity and charitable values in earlier ages. When both sides gains so much from the teaching artist programs as seen from the article, it should be strongly recommended throughout and encouraged more often in more venues.
I’ve had some of the same thoughts already mentioned: while I’ve always believed theatre is meaningful, I’ve wondered if it helps people in a way that is concrete enough for me. Theatre doesn’t feed, clothe, shelter, or protect people. We talk passionately about the importance of storytelling, of fostering empathy, and raising awareness, but I’ve often had the nagging question, “Is it enough? Is it effective?” Over the years, though I recognize theatre’s limitations, I've decided it’s enough for me.
It’s also sometimes easy to lose the forest for the trees. We get so lost in the day-to-day challenge of getting the next show up that we forget we are a part of something that can and does mean something. This article was a lovely reminder of what art and theatre in their rawest form (direct artist teaching) can do for people. And although the experience of working directly with a teaching artist is different than seeing a live show: if nothing else theatre is the training ground. It’s the well.
Much like Monica I think the theater community as a whole is never doing enough to make sure that theater is a reachable art form for all people. So many people fall in love with this medium when they art kids and often programs that teach about theater cost money and so limit those who can attend them. When I was in high school I taught kids at the local boys and girls club about theater and played games with them, and what I learned was that for most of the kids ages 5-13 I was their first interaction with theater, or acting and I was both honored and saddened by that because when the class was over I knew that many of them would not have the opportunity to continue learning. Theater and art is so good for young people because it opens up their minds, and opens up their hearts and allows them to become more confident. I saw so many really shy kids become incredible performers in just a few weeks. I think as a community we have to make sure that we are putting an emphasis on art helping everyone and on it being accessible to everyone because not only is that the right thing to do, but it is also the way to create better art. It is the way to bring more perspectives into the mix and the way to diversify our community, which we so desperately need to do.
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