There are so many, but I think an important one that is often forgotten is that theatre education is not therapy or mental healthcare. Though theatre can be cathartic and therapeutic, and may be the only safe space in a child's life for them to connect with their emotions, it's not the same as getting professional help. Many of our students need support beyond what we as educators or the other students in our program can provide, and we need to be diligent and supportive in encouraging our students to seek out additional support for mental health concerns and in talking to their parents/guardians when it's serious. I think theatre educators put a lot of pressure on themselves to be so much for their students, but we need to remind ourselves that we cannot be or do everything and other professionals can certainly provide more intensive mental health support when it's needed. In the classroom and during rehearsal time after school I remind my students that theatre isn't therapy and when a scene or creative work becomes too much to handle, it's okay to ask for a break, or even step down from working on something that's addressing emotional issues that aren't safe. I know we want our actors to stretch and get in touch with serious emotions and other introspective work, and that's okay. It's okay to cry and be frustrated, and have strong emotions, but when it gets to a level of jeopardizing the mental well being of a child, then it's time to step back and re-evaluate the value of what is happening and adjust and get additional support if necessary.
I would say my favorite two other best practices for theatre education would be:
- USE the standards. Whatever standards are provided to you by your state, district, school or the national arts standards should be your guide. Whenever you are evaluating students it should be standards based, just as it should be in any other core subject. If we want our work as educators to be taken seriously, then we need to have the level of professionalism that standards based lessons and assessments provide. The standards are flexible, but important, and carefully crafted, so use them. It will also make supporting your grading so much easier when a child isn't being successful because you have more than your own personal opinion to back up your grades.
- Let them fail. Theatre education is a safe place to allow students to make mistakes and figure out how to fix them or make them work. So many students don't know what it feels like to mess up and then figure out a solution on their own, still others feel like all they do is mess up and never get a chance to prove they can make it right. Failure leads to success. Adopt language in your classroom that celebrates figuring out something difficult after multiple attempts rather than focusing only on those who get it right the first time. And at the end of the day, if the inside of their costume is duct taped together does it mean that the work that they are doing isn't important, valuable, or amazing learning, absolutely not, so let them mess up and figure it out. Something taking the step back to let them do that is the hardest thing for us as educators, but also can turn in to the best and most powerful learning opportunity.
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Kathleen McNulty Mann
mcnulkl@bay.k12.fl.usArnold High School Theatre
Panama City Beach, FL
Program Director and Thespian Sponsor
Florida State Junior Thespians
District 10 Chair
Florida Association for Theatre Education
Board Member
Membership Committee Chair
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-25-2018 13:43
From: Michael Johnson
Subject: Best Practices
I'll be making a presentation in the coming days to a Masters in Educational Leadership Cohort on the topic of "Theatre: best practices". So, I am just wondering what do you think are the best practices in theater education?
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Michael Johnson
Trinity NC
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