Its that magical time of the year when Florida Thespians are recovering from the four day exhaust-fest that is the State Festival; it was over a week ago and I feel like I'm still recovering. It's a good exhaustion, four days filled with incredible workshops, two amazing mainstages (the two that I saw, there were more that we didn't see) inSunday in the Park with George and Next to Normal, and some great fellowship with my fellow teachers and theatre professionals. Straight off the festival, we came back to our class productions of Much Ado About Nothing, and Othello. And now we're working on Shrek.
I cannot for the life of me work out why I'm so tired. And as a beginning theatre teacher (anything under 5 years has got to count as beginning, there's just too much to learn in 2, 3 or even 4 years), I have come to the realization that perhaps doing less might result in more.
Our society currently prizes the quality of 'busyness' far more than anything else, it seems. We hold it up like a badge of honor, "Oh I'm busy this weekend," "I'm busy with rehearsal, don't know if I can make the department meeting," and so on. There was a time when it was reasonable to be rested, and not fill up our schedules with every thing. This has always been a hard lesson for me to learn, and it has taken (and continues to take) many years to learn.
If you're just starting out, then, as a new theatre teacher, please be sure that you're keeping an eye on your balance. We are coming to the end of a school year season that included ten separate productions, plus 4 Improv nights. Out of the ten, two of those productions were of questionable quality, whilst the other 8 were productions I am proud of. I have to find my own comfort level with that, because my tendency is to focus on the 2 misses rather than the 8 hits. Educational value, the learning experience of failure, the perspective that students will learn equally as much from screwing up as from nailing it, are all cogent and useful ways of framing any discussion of flops.
But on the other side, if a parent, or friend of a student, only sees the one production that flopped, and that was their first experience of theatre, then I take on the responsibility of having potentially lost that patron ever coming back. Which is reasonable. It takes a lot to override an individual's negative experiences; try convincing a friend to get a meal at a restaurant where they got a nasty deal of food poisoning the last time they went, and you'll understand what I'm driving at.
For a drama program to be successful, the troupe director needs to be rested, and not overwhelm themselves with (worthy) intentions. If you're trying to juggle the costume and set demands of three different concurrant shows, then it's ever so possible that you may have little brain space left to focus on the other important aspects of life, you know, like breathing. Eating. Sleeping. Exercise.
I've also discovered that you may exhaust your resources if you're trying to do too many shows at once. I have students in my class productions and in my after school productions, and they've reported to me that this year has been one of continuous (self-imposed) pressure. Last thing I want to do is stress my students out, because they want to do well and want to succeed, but it's tricky trying to balance several things at once and do well.
No regrets, but lesson learned. I don't want to hang on by a slender thread; and I sincerely hope that you can learn from my not-so-clever example of 'how to burn yourself out quickly' by not following in my footsteps.
Until next time. :)