Open Forum

Advocacy for your Program ------------------------------------------- Gai Jones Ojai CA ------------------------------------------- Building a Theatre class on the middle and high school levels sometimes depends on the number of enrolled students. We know there are constraints outside of our sphere of influence when recruiting and maintaining a minimum class size enrollment. Theatre educators and Theatre students are creative. So besides producing superior productions and quality standards-based instruction, what are your best ideas for recruiting for your program and maintaining a robust department?

In my experience and from what I have seen. Some of the more effective methods of program growth and maintenance are. 1. Get your counselors to support your program. They help persuade kids to take your classes and could also do the opposite. 2. Do a family/child based show every couple of years, including using some kids in the show if possible. They remember being in your show and join the program when they get to the high school level. 3. 1 day theatre camps geared to the younger students to show them how much they can learn and have fun in your program. These can be extended. 4. Try to promote programs in your feeders schools as best that you can. When kids take theatre in middle school they are more likely to do it in high school as well. 5. Collaborate. We mended some deep divides in the department this year. We had an influx of choir kids join our shows this spring and more coming in the fall. I look at schools like Green Valley (Mary Poppins at Nationals) and see how those departments find a way to make it work with busy schedules. When one program grows the others can grow with it. 6. Make your program worth being a part of, and engaging. ------------------------------------------- Alan Strait Teacher CCSD Henderson NV -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 07-13-2014 12:19 From: Gai Jones Subject: Best Practices for Class and Cast, Etc. Question 3 Advocacy for your Program ------------------------------------------- Gai Jones Ojai CA ------------------------------------------- Building a Theatre class on the middle and high school levels sometimes depends on the number of enrolled students. We know there are constraints outside of our sphere of influence when recruiting and maintaining a minimum class size enrollment. Theatre educators and Theatre students are creative. So besides producing superior productions and quality standards-based instruction, what are your best ideas for recruiting for your program and maintaining a robust department?

Good question Gai.
I'm working on this right now.
The thing that has helped the most to keep enrollment up is getting  current 8th graders into the theatre to see shows before they register for their 9th grade classes. I assign a group of gregarious students to take the 8th graders on a backstage tour after the show. The message is simple: "Drama is fun. You should take it. It gives you a place to belong in High School. It is my favorite class. I've taken it for all four years."
Straightforward appeals work best.

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Billy Houck
Fremont High School
Sunnyvale CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-13-2014 12:19
From: Gai Jones
Subject: Best Practices for Class and Cast, Etc. Question 3

Advocacy for your Program
-------------------------------------------
So besides producing superior productions and quality standards-based instruction, what are your best ideas for recruiting for your program and maintaining a robust department?

The perennial problem!  I echo what others have said, especially about the guidance department, they are vital.  I also think having a great feeder program is vital - that is something my HS does not have, so I find a lot of my work is convincing kids who had a bad experience to give it another shot in HS.  Sadly, there is nothing more I can do about that.
My problem also comes in being in a very large, very high achieving HS (Blue Ribbon, Etc.), we are competing with nationally recognized ipple programs, sports teams, AP classes, etc. There are a million directions for kids to be pulled in.  I find to make that work means that I have to be flexible, that solves some of it, but other programs are not willing to share and that forces kids to choose, which I think is unfair to the student.
The best advertisement for class is the other kids.  I tried for years to get my Mask & Movement class off the ground (my district won't run a class with less than 15 kids), telling administration all the time that if I can run it once, it will never be short again.  Finally it ran with the minimum and has been going ever since, kids tell their friends they HAVE to take it. Presto!
My final thought is something that my first supervisor in this district told me when he hired me.  He said "kids don't take classes, they take teachers."  I think that is true, if they feel welcomed, respected, and supported, they will take every class they can with you, if they feel abused or mistreated, they never take you again, even if you are teaching a subject they love.


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Jeffrey Davis
Plainsboro NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-14-2014 11:47
From: Billy Houck
Subject: Best Practices for Class and Cast, Etc. Question 3

Good question Gai.
I'm working on this right now.
The thing that has helped the most to keep enrollment up is getting  current 8th graders into the theatre to see shows before they register for their 9th grade classes. I assign a group of gregarious students to take the 8th graders on a backstage tour after the show. The message is simple: "Drama is fun. You should take it. It gives you a place to belong in High School. It is my favorite class. I've taken it for all four years."
Straightforward appeals work best.

-------------------------------------------
Billy Houck
Fremont High School
Sunnyvale CA
-------------------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 07-13-2014 12:19
From: Gai Jones
Subject: Best Practices for Class and Cast, Etc. Question 3

Advocacy for your Program
-------------------------------------------
So besides producing superior productions and quality standards-based instruction, what are your best ideas for recruiting for your program and maintaining a robust department?

Outreach is the key. Not only do I have my current high schoolers mentor to our elementary and middle feeder schools, I also conduct 30-minute workshops in public speaking, acting and writing in those schools.  So I get to meet those kids, and their teachers, and demonstrate how drama is both fun and practical.

When my schedule allows (and with my administration's permission), I go to the schools during my planning period or on lunch (often asking another teacher to cover my classes) so I can work with the younger kids in their own building.  The principals and teachers in those schools love this because it allows for integrated arts education with a "guest artist" that does not require additional funding.

Not only do the students get excited about taking Drama classes at the "big high school", the teachers, and even their parents, are now advocates.  My current students and I can talk 'till we're blue about how great our program is, but to have their own teachers talk about it, over the course of several years, is invaluable. 

This investment of my time has yielded huge benefits.  My classes are full. I have a wonderful, supportive administration.  And my program has become a torchbearer in the community for the performing arts.
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Josh Ruben
Fine Arts Head
Chattanooga TN
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-14-2014 11:47
From: Billy Houck
Subject: Best Practices for Class and Cast, Etc. Question 3

Good question Gai.
I'm working on this right now.
The thing that has helped the most to keep enrollment up is getting  current 8th graders into the theatre to see shows before they register for their 9th grade classes. I assign a group of gregarious students to take the 8th graders on a backstage tour after the show. The message is simple: "Drama is fun. You should take it. It gives you a place to belong in High School. It is my favorite class. I've taken it for all four years."
Straightforward appeals work best.

-------------------------------------------
Billy Houck
Fremont High School
Sunnyvale CA
-------------------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 07-13-2014 12:19
From: Gai Jones
Subject: Best Practices for Class and Cast, Etc. Question 3

Advocacy for your Program
-------------------------------------------
So besides producing superior productions and quality standards-based instruction, what are your best ideas for recruiting for your program and maintaining a robust department?

What a great discussion! I'm certain there are many more ideas out there. Let's keep this one going for a long time.

I agree that engagement at a young age is a huge help when the kids get to high school. Here's one approach that works around here. I was my son's den leader in scouts. Working with Kim Eldridge, from Lakota West High School, we did a "scout night" at the school. The show was "Beauty and the Beast." The catch that really sold this? We let everyone know that guests from the cast would be at the next den meeting to demonstrate and teach the scouts about stage combat. I think we had 60 kids and adults at the show. After the next den meeting the parents were even more impressed than the kids. Of course, my son couldn't wait to get home and show my wife how he could "throw Dad around by the hair." The next year, we did "A Christmas Carol" and the demonstration was for makeup. We sent a bunch of excited boys home with "scars, bruises, cuts, and black eyes." It was a huge success.

Okay folks, who else is going to share their tips for building involvement. Who's program is one that kids tell their friends to get involved in?

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David LaFleche
Director Of Membership
Educational Theatre Association
Cincinnati OH
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-13-2014 12:19
From: Gai Jones
Subject: Best Practices for Class and Cast, Etc. Question 3


Advocacy for your Program
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Gai Jones
Ojai CA
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Building a Theatre class on the middle and high school levels sometimes depends on the number of enrolled students. We know there are constraints outside of our sphere of influence when recruiting and maintaining a minimum class size enrollment. Theatre educators and Theatre students are creative.
So besides producing superior productions and quality standards-based instruction, what are your best ideas for recruiting for your program and maintaining a robust department?

These are all great ideas. I would like to share a few more. 1. Once a year, the high school Improv Troupe goes to the middle schools for a couple of hours after school. The high school students demonstrate improv games, involve the middle school students in improv activities, and answer questions and talk about our theatre program. All students are treated to pizza. 2. We produce a children's show once a year and invite district elementary school classes to attend for free during the school day Last year, approximately 500 students attended the shows in one day. We also offer performances for the general public (and a number of teachers and our Principal brought their children). 3. Every January, prior to when middle schoolers sign-up for high school classes, the advanced theatre students produce and perform an outreach show that is toured to the middle schools during the school day. As one respondent commented, we have also found stage combat scenes to be a favorite with middle schoolers. We are careful to explain how important instruction and fight calls are. 4. Because I teach in a very high achieving school in which much of the focus is on college admissions, stage tech students paint a marquee, which is hung outside the theatre for the last few weeks of school, congratulating the graduating theatre seniors and listing the colleges the seniors will attend. The underclassmen also create a "College Map" which is posted in the theatre lobby. Many students and parents make their way through the lobby for various events. This is not a direct outreach effort, but it highlights the fact that theatre students are gaining admission to all sorts of colleges and universities, including highly competitive ones, and helps dispel the myth that theatre is "not academic." 5. Stage Tech students run every event that takes place in the theatre. This allows the theatre program to interface with the community and all departments in the school. The administration truly relies on the students for technical help and has developed a great deal of respect for the students, and theatre program as a result. ------------------------------------------- Kathleen Woods Cupertino CA -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 07-15-2014 08:13 From: David LaFleche Subject: Best Practices for Class and Cast, Etc. Question 3 What a great discussion! I'm certain there are many more ideas out there. Let's keep this one going for a long time. I agree that engagement at a young age is a huge help when the kids get to high school. Here's one approach that works around here. I was my son's den leader in scouts. Working with Kim Eldridge, from Lakota West High School, we did a "scout night" at the school. The show was "Beauty and the Beast." The catch that really sold this? We let everyone know that guests from the cast would be at the next den meeting to demonstrate and teach the scouts about stage combat. I think we had 60 kids and adults at the show. After the next den meeting the parents were even more impressed than the kids. Of course, my son couldn't wait to get home and show my wife how he could "throw Dad around by the hair." The next year, we did "A Christmas Carol" and the demonstration was for makeup. We sent a bunch of excited boys home with "scars, bruises, cuts, and black eyes." It was a huge success. Okay folks, who else is going to share their tips for building involvement. Who's program is one that kids tell their friends to get involved in? ------------------------------------------- David LaFleche Director Of Membership Educational Theatre Association Cincinnati OH -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 07-13-2014 12:19 From: Gai Jones Subject: Best Practices for Class and Cast, Etc. Question 3 Advocacy for your Program ------------------------------------------- Gai Jones Ojai CA ------------------------------------------- Building a Theatre class on the middle and high school levels sometimes depends on the number of enrolled students. We know there are constraints outside of our sphere of influence when recruiting and maintaining a minimum class size enrollment. Theatre educators and Theatre students are creative. So besides producing superior productions and quality standards-based instruction, what are your best ideas for recruiting for your program and maintaining a robust department?