Just dumb luck; or a lifelong trajectory? You decide. I had acted since early childhood, and written plays starting in 5th grade. My undergraduate studies were at Vassar, in the days when Meryl Streep had recently passed through and was just becoming a screen phenomenon, so there was great excitement in the Drama department; but I only dabbled in the department and majored in English, writing a play as my thesis.
I migrated to NYC along with everyone else and worked as a "production assistant" (a.k.a. "go-fer") at Lincoln Center and in Broadway offices, meeting agents, writing another play, attempting to market my best work, to no avail. Eventually I went to the MFA program in playwriting at the University of Washington, under the direction of M.E. "Betty" Comtois, who boasted Lillian Hellman, Meredith Wilson, and Bill Mastrosimone amongst the writers whose original works she had helped nurture. Seattle Director Burke Walker was at UW, as was Meisner protegé Jack Clay; director Daniel Sullivan was a regular guest just before he moved to New York, so I studied with them all.
Fast forward a decade and I am living on an island 80 miles north of Seattle, raising a family and running a summer camp for a living. I am invited into my children's alternative k-5 classroom and asked to "do some drama" with them. What started as parent volunteer hours exploded into the most popular "course offering" in the school; so much so that I had to remove it from the school and co-found a non-profit theater company before irate parents dismantled the alternative classroom (which eventually they did) because their children "could not get in."
In a couple more years I quit my "day job" to promote my plays and adaptations of Shakespeare full time, but almost immediately started substitute teaching in order to make ends meet. Very soon I was invited back into the school as a part time teacher, to create a drama program. I was offered more and more classes, so eventually became a teacher full time. Our school is tiny and has no facility for theater, but I teach two Drama courses annually along with English, and I still run the non-profit Community Shakespeare Company outside of school and run an after-school drama club. There is so little in the way of performance space where I live that everything we do is with "two planks and a passion," converting restaurants, museum spaces and a community center into theaters, then dismantling all after production. It is mind-boggling, exhausting, frustrating, highly creative, exhilarating, and deeply rewarding.
So, "why?" you ask? Because it's there? Because as you state, it is the "noblest of professions?" The camaraderie I feel with theater teachers is unlike any professional relationship I have ever known. We all realize what we offer to students, and against all odds in this country and its educational system - with little recognition and less understanding of what we do from school administrators or the general public - we get up and go do it every day.
"The world will little note nor long remember what we say here," but our students never forget what we do, nor how it impacts their lives. It is a rare privilege to be a theater teacher. Thank you for asking.
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Richard Carter
Author/Director: Community Shakespeare Company;
MS/HS Teacher, Lopez Schools
Lopez Island, WA
Original Message:
Sent: 01-15-2016 07:46
From: Chelsea Petty
Subject: Becoming A Theatre/Drama Teacher
At 9, I did the traditional Christmas play at my church. I knew all my 6 lines and where to stand, but I was so afraid of being seen that I hid my face behind the veil of my costume. Looking at pictures later, I was disgusted with my self. (Yes, even at age 9) I couldn't believe I had worked so hard on my lines and at practice to look so stupid. I decided that never again would I hide. If I was going to be a character, I was going to BE that character. I started turning my favorite stories into plays to act out with my sister and our dolls. I spent the whole year practicing until the next church play, where I earned a bigger part and in performance, I stole the show. The audience reacted to me and I enjoyed the rush. By the next year I was the lead in the church play and by age 13, I wrote the annual Christmas play. I had found my world. The problem was that I knew I didn't want to be an actor, so I thought my theatrical endeavors were only year-to-year at church (and the one play I talked my 6th grade history teacher into, where I got to play Cleopatra). We had no community theater and my school had no drama dept. I didn't even know a drama teacher existed until 9th-grade. I had known I wanted to teach since 3rd grade, inspired by a tough, but understanding teacher who had helped me in a very dark time in my life. One day, a junior asked me at school to sign a petition to hire a drama teacher. I was thrilled to discover a way to combine my chosen career with my great passion. I knew that was it. I would be a drama teacher. I would do plays the rest of my life, but with students whom I could help come out from behind their own veils and find a world of acceptance and value. After ten years as a teacher, I have seen many students do just that. My students have gone on to become lawyers, journalists, doctors, teachers, nurses, and preachers. (No actors, yet, but that's ok, too) And I'm proud of them. And very, very grateful that an awkward and nerdy little girl never gave up.
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Chelsea Petty
Columbus MS