It's gonna be a happy new year....

New Year's Resolutions are not really my thing but I wouldn't mind getting in the habit of writing more. I'm 30 now. I think I know something. Or at least I'm trying to figure more things out. So I think that's worth keeping track of on the internet. Not with the intention of anyone really reading it but just for the sack of writing it and if someone happens to see it and wants to have a discussion then woho!

I'm mid school year so there's that. Loved directing The Clean House. I think it's the single piece of theatre I've directed that I'm most proud of. Probably up there in the pieces-of-theatre-I've-been-a-part-of too. It just seems like a blessing to have wonderful students, a beautiful play, great support from parent volunteers and incredible student designers and then bam see it come to life on stage and people really love it as much as you do.

It also got me thinking about what I can do to change theatre through the students I teach. I already teach plays and give scenes to students written by woman playwrights but I'm kinda on a mission now to make that a real thing. After directing Ruhl (and reading her amazing book of essays she doesn't have time to write) I want to expose my students to more female playwrights and tell them why that's important. I want them to know about the Bechdel test. I want them to challenge what they are seeing in the theatre and what they traditionally think of as important theatre. I am in the remarkable position to be able to tell young people that are as passionate about theatre as I am, that they are the ones that are going to make a difference and they are gonna do that by changing the work, demanding female playwrights voices are heard, that women of color have their voices heard. My kids are the ones who can do that and I can encourage them to do it. That's maybe the most important part about teaching I've come up with so far.

So as far as I'm able I want to direct shows written by women. Since I have choice and I can make that happen. Where I don't have choice (musicals cough cough) I can at least be vocal with my students about the future and what we should be looking at and what they can be working toward.

As if they could hear me, Shotgun Players in Berkeley are doing a season of only female playwrights. I'm going to support that initiative of change by buying season tickets (which I never do anywhere because I'm one of those flighty busy 30 somethings now). In case you're interested, check out their website: https://shotgunplayers.org/online/2015season

Anyway. That's where I am at the start of 2015. And as I have ideas I'd like to keep sharing them here. So here's hoping I can keep up with that.

Cheers.

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I'm Still Here

According to these post dates it's been over a year since I've posted anything. It actually perfectly lines up with when I stopped teaching musical theatre to adults and started trying to teach high schoolers. I say "trying to teach" because nearly a year and a half later I'm teaching theatre at a high school and my mind is in a very different place than when I was in school and had the liberty to do research of my own and write about Trude. (Isn't it funny how you can miss people you never knew just because you stop writing or reading about them?)

In any case it's been coming on me gradually that I might be happier if I got to write a little more. I haven't felt like I've even had time to think about writing with said career as theatre teacher. But honestly I may be coming up with just as many discoveries, just in different ways and of different things.

Teaching high school (and might I add not quite full time although it often feels like more than full time) is probably one of the most challenging things I've ever done. With the exception of AWE, I can think of nothing more difficult that convincing teenagers that you're actually teaching them important things that they will be grateful to know in the future. (It is also especially difficult when one is 5'1'') Some days there are rewarding moments and I think about how great it is, and some days I feel like they are sucking my soul out.

But now that I'm back in a show (working with my company gives me unending joy) I feel like I can take a bit of my own back. And writing is one thing I miss. So I'm gonna try to write about discoveries I make about teaching or discoveries about my work with Butterfield 8, but definitley writing about things that I love, because that makes my heart happy. Tumblr is for happy pictures and clips, but this blog is coming back as a place to write. So there.

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