You may be a small school, but it sounds like you have quite a bit going on in your performing arts center already, and it sounds like your new headmaster wants to grow the program (yay!)! As you say, you already have 4 performances each year. You also mentioned that community members funded the building construction. Do community events use the space for their performances or other events? If not now, will they want to in the future? Or, do you want them to, in order to bring in more funds for the theatre's operations?
I know you are focusing on classes right now, but it sounds like to me the thing to suggest to your headmaster is to get a Theatre Manager, and pronto. Because, your theatre is already acting as a 'roadhouse', and there are a lot of things to take into consideration, such as scheduling, risk management and safety, event support, equipment use, staffing, administration, and so on.
If you, as a teacher (you didn't mention if you were already full time?), start taking this on, you'll soon find – as many performing arts teachers can attest to – that you will become the main contact for groups (school or community) wanting to use the theatre, and soon you will be the person to go to to find equipment and teach them how it works, and before you know it you'll be needed to help run the events. Suddenly you're the Theatre Manager as well as a full-time teacher. You're already saying you feel overwhelmed, and you've only got 4 or so events right now.
If your new headmaster is as forward thinking as it seems (again, yay!) – it's great that he is looking for suggestions as to what will work! - I really recommend what will work best is to plan ahead and hire on a part time Theatre Manager now (which will grow into a full time position before you know it). I have a free resource library for you that has 9 free resources designed to help you level-up support and funding of school theatres. Here's the link: https://www.presett.org/resourcelibrary.html
All the best,
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Beth Rand, EBMS
FREE RESOURCES to help you level up your admin's support and funding of your school theatre operations
JOIN OUR CONVERSATION ABOUT THEATRE OPERATIONS
https://www.facebook.com/groups/presettwww.PRESETT.orgbeth@PRESETT.orgWestminster, CO
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-27-2023 11:58
From: Shannon Melton
Subject: Advice for starting a performing arts program at a small private school
Hello! I teach at a small private school in Mississippi. Currently there is very little in terms of performing arts available - sports is king here. Students take elementary music through 5th grade and do a class play in kindergarten, 1st and 5th grades. After they move to the ¨big building¨ for 6-12th grades, the only artistic classes offered are band (which currently has about 8 kids in it for jr high and high school combined), and a drama class in 8th grade where the teacher has them make tie-dye pillow cases and play kickball outside on nice days. We have no choral music at all after elementary and no school plays except for the senior class play. We have a very nice performing arts facility that many community members donated to build 15 years ago and it sees 4 performances a year between the kindergarten and elementary class plays and the senior play.
Our new headmaster wants to invest in the arts and has asked me to give him suggestions on where to start. I do not have a music or performing arts education background - my major was Spanish and I am a Spanish teacher - but I have been a singer and performer all of my life so that is why he has asked me to look into this. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on where to even start? It would have to be a program that functions mainly through classes at school since we are so small and so many kids are involved in a million extracurricular activities after school. It breaks my heart that the artistic kids do not have an outlet here but I am feeling very overwhelmed. He has given me no ideas on what he is looking for. He says ¨Give me suggestions on what could work here to get something started. I want to have at least 1 school play every year and more would be great.¨ With being a private school we really do not follow public school guidelines and are free to create whatever will function best here. Please help me!
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Shannon Melton
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