Heather's Response-December 7th.

I really loved this article. It gave me so many things to think about, and confirmed that some of the ideas I’ve had for my future classroom, and my ideas about what educational theatre should do, are valid! I really loved the focus on literacies that directly deal with the students. The need to be very involved in all aspects of theatre production. They gave the idea of having an appointed artistic director and a cabinet of students who are able to decide on the productions that will be done. I think this is a great idea. My drama teacher in high school let our drama cabinet in on all of the planning and prep and cost, etc, that goes into producing a play, and let the club give their vote on shows they wanted to see us do. It was a wonderful learning experience for me. I look back now and realize how much I was able to learn about theatre production, just from her letting us be in on the planning. By treating us as her confidants in picking the shows, and dealing with budget and ticket sales, and all the ‘behind the scenes’ things that go into creating a piece of theatre, I feel so much more knowledgeable, I feel like I know so much more about theatre and it’s processes that I would have if she had just chosen the shows and let us perform in them. This is the atmosphere I want in my theatre program. I want my students to be able to learn valuable lessons by understanding and being a part of everything it takes to produce a theatrical production. I want my theatre program to be a student centered program, where they have the ownership, and therefore care even more about what happens, and have the opportunity to learn all that they can.