In the dedication of my book (above), I thank 7 of my acting teachers.
Ms. Bilik, with whom I performed Gilbert and Sullivan and took middle school drama classes; Dr. Bogar, for whom I performed in The Imaginary Invalid, Chess, Crazy for You, and Runaways, and took acting and directing in high school.
Four of my acting professors from Cornell University: Tracey Huffman, who helped me prepare for my first ever professional theater audition (I did not get it, my fault, not hers - if anyone has a contact, I would love to get in touch), Dr. Cole, who directed me in The Winter’s Tale and passed in 2015, Dr. (Dr.) Professor Feldshuh, an ER doctor who also directed The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and Dr. Levitt, who taught sophomore acting and who also runs an amazing program of theatre behind bars.
Finally, I thank Mr. Larry Arancio, who I worked with for a summer intensive at (then) NYU’s CAP21 studio, and who was the first person to suggest to me that maybe being a professional actor wasn’t my journey – that maybe instead it was to combine psychology with theatre in some way.
I’ve gotten in contact with most of my teachers over the last few weeks, and it’s been moving to correspond about the ways in which each one, in turn, changed my life. If I could remember or know my acting teachers in 1989 at Bethesda Academy of Dramatic Arts, I would reach out to them too. Teachers know that they are making a difference, but it’s not often that 15, 20, or 30 years later someone reaches out to say hi and let them know. We do love it when that happens, though.
For Why Theatre Education Matters, I worked with 10 teachers across 5 different school districts. In two districts, I worked with a single teacher, in two I worked with pairs of teachers who taught different levels in their schools, and in one district I worked with four teachers across four schools. I wanted to talk a bit about why I focused on teachers for the Thinking On Stage study rather than focusing on the students or formal documents such as a syllabi or lesson plans.
The way we gathered data for the study that is the foundation of the book was to film the teachers naturalistically- just sitting in the corner of the classroom with a camera and microphone focused on the teacher, or following them around (at a good distance if we could), as they walked around a classroom giving individual group notes. Then, at the end of each of the 40 classes we filmed, we interviewed the teachers, asking them the same set of questions:
1) What do you think was your most effective teaching moment today?
2) What do you think was your least effective teaching moment today?
3) When you said [phrase from class], what did you mean by that?
4) When you said [phrase from class], what were you trying to teach?
5) What was your overarching pedagogical goal for today?
6) How did you hope to achieve that goal?
7) How did you actually achieve that goal?
What was fascinating to me was that teachers did have answers to many of these questions, and often they spoke at a 10,000 foot level in the interview, but were intensely detailed and specific about how they were engaged with students in the moment of the acting class. I used their answers to help build the eight acting habits of mind, as it framed the thinking strategies they were trying to get students to engage. But while all the teachers used all the acting habits of mind in their teaching, it wasn’t the goal in any moment.
Teachers had close relationships with students and knew them and how to coach them in the moment – what works for one student might not work for all. Some teachers brought students to the center to use and work with as examples, others gave encouraging shouts from across the room, others had whispered conversations in the hallway before beginning a scene.
The central operating principle for this book was to find out what was actually happening in an acting class, as the students were taking it, in the real world, and in real time. I wanted to know what the students were being offered, guided to, and shown. I wanted to know what thinking strategies they were being given the opportunity to use and integrate into their acting classes, what problems they were being asked to solve. Every teacher had a plan, a syllabus, a set of curriculum standards, but every teacher also had a flexibility, a nimble way of reacting and interacting with the students. It was this ability to improvise (as teacher and as performer), to share some of themselves when helpful, and push students to share themselves when helpful, that made the teaching of acting as I describe and analyze in the book extraordinary.
Everyone I know who is an actor has at least 1, sometimes 2, sometimes, like me, 7 teachers who have changed their ability to think about themselves, their confidence, has built a classroom that forges collaborative ensemble and silly joy. And this is why teachers felt like the only option for a dedication- my teachers and anyone who has ever stepped in front of a theatre classroom to lead.
One note I would like to end on. There is an error in the book. Juanita Rodrigues, a teacher at BAA was absolutely central to my understanding of the ways in which acting classes work, and unfortunately her name is misspelled in the acknowledgements. Her engagement with the students and her deep knowledge about the exercises and work she assigned to students was enthralling to watch. She was careful, patient, supportive and motivating. She is beloved by her students. Her teaching is all over the book – 16 pages worth. And, I am deeply sorry I misspelt her last name in the acknowledgements. Should I be so lucky as to have a second printing of the book, I will correct it. But I wanted to apologize to Juanita, and say that I knew the correct spelling and did not pay enough attention in my final read through, and I am sorry.
Why Theatre Education Matters is available at all major online retailers including bookshop.org, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.com, but if you order directly from the publisher, Teachers College Press before July 31 you can enter S24THEATRE at check out for a 15% off discount and free shipping. If you're interested in a group or bulk order please contact me through ThaliaGoldstein.com and I can help arrange! On ThaliaGoldstein.com you can also find free publicly available resources from the book including an Executive Summary, a Teacher Toolkit and a list of Additional Resources for further reading.