Open Forum

Hi Everyone,

I am presenting a Master Class on the topic of Spirituality and Theatre Education at the EdTA conference this weekend. It will be very interactive! In this post, I throw out some "food for thought." I look forward to exploring this issue further with antone who's interested at the conference this weekend!

I am captivated by the concept of the spiritual in my work as a high school theatre teacher and often wonder what hinders me from publically recognizing -- with my students, their parents, my administrators and our community -- that the power of theatre education is an inherently spiritual experience.

I have been gathering, over the years, examples of artists who contemplate the nature of the spiritual in their work. For example,

• Rosanne Cash says that writing songs and singing is "really about honoring the source of creativity. I don't know if there's a personal God, but I know there's something bigger than me that is the source of art and music. And to come together with people who also believe that in some form or other - it's sustaining."

   

• The metaphors that link theatre work to words associated with faith-based contemplation are interesting to collect. A director of the Royal Shakespeare Company recently brought overseas an exact replica of his home theatre's stage when his show performed in New York, explaining that the work "requires congregational, communitarian, deep-thrust spaces that spatially unite actors and audience."

   

• From an article entitled "Sort of a Salon, Sort of a Church" in the NY Times (9-26-2010), the director of a theatre company called Secret City described an actor who came to the company frustrated because, "Nothing Chris was being cast in was allowing him to say or do what he can here." She commented, "It is like a prayer, to do a performance as yourself."

   

• The word "spirit" comes from the Latin verb spirare, which means "to breathe." Spirituality requires presence. To be present is to live out the meaning of spirit - to have breath. How often do we teach our actors to breathe in order to release what they are holding inside, to use breath support in order to release their characters and bring them to life?

   

• I refer to the space in which my students and I rehearse a play as a sanctuary for creativity.

What is sacred about teaching? The search for connections, relationships among various content, and deeper understandings is what we teachers strive for our students to achieve. But at what points does a school institution's power interfere with approaches to teaching that help students connect what they are learning to their lived experiences? If our students come to us breaking or broken, can a compartmentalized educational structure help to heal them?

A spiritual theatre teacher is one who creates community in his/her classroom or rehearsal. In community, students gain a greater consciousness of the world beyond themselves and create a connection between themselves and others. Rather than feeling autonomous, they become part of a collective. Theatre education might be considered a spiritual experience, because -- rooted by ensemble - students engaged in the process of "putting on a play" discover that their individual spirits and power of self is in the service of collective empowerment.

When we reflect critically on our work, the disparate threads of our work come into a whole. Living with wholeness empowers us to understand how our lives and the lives of our students are directly connected and mutually influential. This perception supports us our individual programs and school districts face challenges and change. Critical reflection can nurture a spiritual purpose that sustains us.

Hi Everyone,

I am presenting a Master Class on the topic of Spirituality and Theatre Education at the EdTA conference this weekend. It will be very interactive! In this post, I throw out some "food for thought." I look forward to exploring this issue further with antone who's interested at the conference this weekend!

I am captivated by the concept of the spiritual in my work as a high school theatre teacher and often wonder what hinders me from publically recognizing -- with my students, their parents, my administrators and our community -- that the power of theatre education is an inherently spiritual experience.

I have been gathering, over the years, examples of artists who contemplate the nature of the spiritual in their work. For example,

• Rosanne Cash says that writing songs and singing is "really about honoring the source of creativity. I don't know if there's a personal God, but I know there's something bigger than me that is the source of art and music. And to come together with people who also believe that in some form or other - it's sustaining."

   

• The metaphors that link theatre work to words associated with faith-based contemplation are interesting to collect. A director of the Royal Shakespeare Company recently brought overseas an exact replica of his home theatre's stage when his show performed in New York, explaining that the work "requires congregational, communitarian, deep-thrust spaces that spatially unite actors and audience."

   

• From an article entitled "Sort of a Salon, Sort of a Church" in the NY Times (9-26-2010), the director of a theatre company called Secret City described an actor who came to the company frustrated because, "Nothing Chris was being cast in was allowing him to say or do what he can here." She commented, "It is like a prayer, to do a performance as yourself."

   

• The word "spirit" comes from the Latin verb spirare, which means "to breathe." Spirituality requires presence. To be present is to live out the meaning of spirit - to have breath. How often do we teach our actors to breathe in order to release what they are holding inside, to use breath support in order to release their characters and bring them to life?

   

• I refer to the space in which my students and I rehearse a play as a sanctuary for creativity.

What is sacred about teaching? The search for connections, relationships among various content, and deeper understandings is what we teachers strive for our students to achieve. But at what points does a school institution's power interfere with approaches to teaching that help students connect what they are learning to their lived experiences? If our students come to us breaking or broken, can a compartmentalized educational structure help to heal them?

A spiritual theatre teacher is one who creates community in his/her classroom or rehearsal. In community, students gain a greater consciousness of the world beyond themselves and create a connection between themselves and others. Rather than feeling autonomous, they become part of a collective. Theatre education might be considered a spiritual experience, because -- rooted by ensemble - students engaged in the process of "putting on a play" discover that their individual spirits and power of self is in the service of collective empowerment.

When we reflect critically on our work, the disparate threads of our work come into a whole. Living with wholeness empowers us to understand how our lives and the lives of our students are directly connected and mutually influential. This perception supports us our individual programs and school districts face challenges and change. Critical reflection can nurture a spiritual purpose that sustains us.

Hi Everyone,

I am presenting a Master Class on the topic of Spirituality and Theatre Education at the EdTA conference this weekend. It will be very interactive! In this post, I throw out some "food for thought." I look forward to exploring this issue further with antone who's interested at the conference this weekend!

I am captivated by the concept of the spiritual in my work as a high school theatre teacher and often wonder what hinders me from publically recognizing -- with my students, their parents, my administrators and our community -- that the power of theatre education is an inherently spiritual experience.

I have been gathering, over the years, examples of artists who contemplate the nature of the spiritual in their work. For example,

• Rosanne Cash says that writing songs and singing is "really about honoring the source of creativity. I don't know if there's a personal God, but I know there's something bigger than me that is the source of art and music. And to come together with people who also believe that in some form or other - it's sustaining."

   

• The metaphors that link theatre work to words associated with faith-based contemplation are interesting to collect. A director of the Royal Shakespeare Company recently brought overseas an exact replica of his home theatre's stage when his show performed in New York, explaining that the work "requires congregational, communitarian, deep-thrust spaces that spatially unite actors and audience."

   

• From an article entitled "Sort of a Salon, Sort of a Church" in the NY Times (9-26-2010), the director of a theatre company called Secret City described an actor who came to the company frustrated because, "Nothing Chris was being cast in was allowing him to say or do what he can here." She commented, "It is like a prayer, to do a performance as yourself."

   

• The word "spirit" comes from the Latin verb spirare, which means "to breathe." Spirituality requires presence. To be present is to live out the meaning of spirit - to have breath. How often do we teach our actors to breathe in order to release what they are holding inside, to use breath support in order to release their characters and bring them to life?

   

• I refer to the space in which my students and I rehearse a play as a sanctuary for creativity.

What is sacred about teaching? The search for connections, relationships among various content, and deeper understandings is what we teachers strive for our students to achieve. But at what points does a school institution's power interfere with approaches to teaching that help students connect what they are learning to their lived experiences? If our students come to us breaking or broken, can a compartmentalized educational structure help to heal them?

A spiritual theatre teacher is one who creates community in his/her classroom or rehearsal. In community, students gain a greater consciousness of the world beyond themselves and create a connection between themselves and others. Rather than feeling autonomous, they become part of a collective. Theatre education might be considered a spiritual experience, because -- rooted by ensemble - students engaged in the process of "putting on a play" discover that their individual spirits and power of self is in the service of collective empowerment.

When we reflect critically on our work, the disparate threads of our work come into a whole. Living with wholeness empowers us to understand how our lives and the lives of our students are directly connected and mutually influential. This perception supports us our individual programs and school districts face challenges and change. Critical reflection can nurture a spiritual purpose that sustains us.