One of the main goals for our Theatre Education Community is to help theatre students and professionals from all over connect and identify with each other in order to build resources and support the theatre education field. We shine a spotlight on a different member every other week by conducting a simple interview.
Our next spotlight is Elana Kepner, a theatre professional located in Greenville, North Carolina. In addition to serving as the drama teacher and troupe director at The Oakwood School, Troupe 8494, Elana is the Artistic Director of her own theatre, Whirligig Stage. Elana’s range of experience allows her to advise on many different topics in our Community.
Why do you believe theatre is important?
There are so many reasons why theatre is important, but here is the big one for me: empathy.
Theatre artists have the power to tell each individual a unique story, to open our minds, to provoke us to ask and answer difficult questions, to reflect our joy and fear and pain and victory and to ultimately connect us to each other through this narrative. We need theatre now, more than ever, to teach empathy. In an educational setting this experience is invaluable; the connection to each other, to the world at large and to something greater than ourselves is tangible and accessible. And along those same lines, theatre is a safe space where everyone can be loved and appreciated for all of our quirks, our warts and our unique talents. Theatre is a place where we can explore the strength and the yearning of our literal and figurative voices and be vulnerable and completely ourselves.
The Oakwood School’s 2018 production of Bye Bye Birdie
What is your greatest challenge?
Say it with me: balance!! I teach part-time at The Oakwood School, work as their Development Director part-time and then serve as Artistic Director for my own company, Whirligig Stage, with the time I have remaining. My husband, Jason, is our Executive Director/ Scenic Designer/ man of all work at Whirligig, so sometimes we find it hard to turn off when we get home. Snuggling the dog and getting outside together helps. This past year, I have tried and failed many times to find that balance. I have forgotten and then had to re-teach myself some important lessons about being present with my students, in my work and, most importantly, with the people in my life who support me. Jason is my champion and my rock and he is always there to reassure me, feed me, make me laugh and give me a pep talk when I am at my lowest and reminds me to celebrate each small victory when things click.
What is your favorite play? What makes it so special?
Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl is at the top of my list. Sarah Ruhl writes in a way that makes perfect sense to me as a human being and a theatre artist. She captures the essence of these important fragments, these seconds of love, confusion, fear and joy in a way that is simultaneously specific and so universal. I also love the sense that everything is only happening on stage in that moment, that these characters that we see have no past, no future, just now. It is a meditation in being present. Eurydice makes me cry almost every time I get to the final scene because the raw loss is palpable and feels like every loss I have experienced. The first time I read it with teenagers, I fell in love with it again because I saw that it spoke to them too and inspired them to be vulnerable in their acting, their playwriting and their interactions with each other.
The Sound of Music at The Oakwood School, 2017
Everyone has at least one good theatre story. Tell us yours!
There are so many good ones, but here is a favorite. Anyone who has ever been in or seen Fiddler on the Roof probably understands that the climax of the play comes when the Constable comes to tell the villagers that they are being evicted from their town. I was playing Hodel in a middle school production of Fiddler on the Roof, but was double cast in the role, so I was enjoying opening night in the audience with some friends who weren’t involved in the production. A flu had been going around and I later learned that the Constable had been feeling feverish. Instead of telling a backstage parent, he settled in for a nap on Tevya’s bed in the wings and slept right through his cue. I could see the panic in my castmates’ faces and I was powerless to help. There were a dozen middle-school actors on stage desperately improvising: “I heard a rumor that we have to leave Anatevka.” “No, that can’t be true.” “Should we start packing?” This went on for a painful three minutes until it was apparent the Constable would not be arriving. The director put them out of their misery and lights abruptly came down. Then the music for the song “Anatevka” began and the villagers sang a little more loudly than usual. The girl sitting next to me turned to me and said quietly, “I’m so confused.” So am I, Courtney, so am I….
What is your proudest accomplishment?
I hope one day that my theatre, Whirligig, and Oakwood’s theatre program will be my proudest accomplishments, but both are still young and I don’t want to jinx them. For now, I’ll say developing and leading Shakespeare Squadron, a teen Shakespeare company for Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, has been my most fulfilling experience as a teaching artist. (Thank you Chris Limber!) Watching teens learn, or rather, embody, Shakespeare’s language and rhythm and having the opportunity to lead them to self-discovery was awe-inspiring. All these kids from disparate backgrounds came together to create a community and some of the best Shakespeare I have ever had the privilege of witnessing. Sometimes, I feel like I was just in the right place at the right time because it was so magical. It has been five years since I moved away, and the program, in a different iteration, is still running strong, so for once, I feel like I left something tangible behind.
Shakespeare Squadron's 2013 production of Hamlet
What is unique about your program?
I think there are a lot of programs just like ours: we are a small, independent prek-12 school and we only produce one play, a musical, every year and have only one upper-school level theatre class. But I think what makes our program, and The Oakwood School, unique is our culture of service, inquiry and our community-wide sense of family. Our student performers are committed, consummate musicians, and well-rounded people and artists. So many students are involved behind the scenes from the Art Honors Society members who paint the set, to the fifth grader who became an important part of our stage crew, to our single student musician playing in the orchestra with professional musicians. All of these students rise to the challenge each new production brings with the curiosity, generosity and drive they bring to their classes, their community service projects and their athletic pursuits. This speaks to how well my students are educated as scholars and as citizens of the community. We don’t have the numbers for more classes, or more productions yet, but there are so many advocates for the arts, including our parent-led Fine Arts Support Team, and so much administrative support, that the program continues to grow by leaps and bounds. We have a year-old ITS troupe and some of my students are spearheading our first entry into the state one-act festival for the fall. I also am so lucky to have Erin Scully, Kathryn Sauls, Cherita Lytle and Tamara Shusterman (Honorary Thespian and parent producer extraordinaire) in my corner. These ladies make me look so good. Whew!
The Oakwood School's 2018 Thespian Induction and Senior recognition
If you enjoyed Elana’s interview as much as we did, add her as a contact in the Community.
Do you know someone who deserves a moment in the Spotlight? Tell me their name and why at gbutsch@schooltheatre.org. Want to read more Community Spotlights? You can find them here.