Third Day - Personal Statement

Today I had to try and write yet another "personal statement" to update my various application files spread across the internet. I like to think of it as my little cyber battalion advancing the war against my unemployment. Instead I think I ended up writing a "personal screed" but I'm hoping to salvage some of it for an appropriate purpose. Until such time, it will serve as today's entry--I'm officially out of introspection.

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When it comes to teaching, one phrase has remained my guide for over twenty years, whether the students are a group of campers,  teenage voice students or a workshop full of aspiring professionals. It is simply this, tell the story. Whether it is a song, a play, a piece of literature or a historical document, there is always a story to be told and that story is rendered significant by the understanding of its teller. As a teacher in the performing arts, my skill set requires a broad understanding of literature, history, language and physical techniques to express the material in music, movement and spoken word.  So much time is spent on the details of a performance, putting up a production or presenting a concert that it is easy to lose sight of the fundamental reason why we do these things. We are here to tell the story.

As a teacher, my goal is twofold. My obvious objective is to give my students the skills they need; learning to speak clearly or move with intention and parsing a piece of literature or a historical document for meaning and subtext. My most important job, however, is to connect them, intellectually and emotionally with the stories that their skills are being honed to serve. While this is important in the professional sphere, it is elemental in education. In arts education, the goal is to transform the performers themselves, as much if not more than the audience.

I believe it is this transformational aspect of the performing arts that elevates it from the elective to the essential in the school environment and indeed it is why I am so driven to make this transition from teaching privately to being part of an educational community.  Recently I was involved in a project that was a collaboration between an upper school history department, a local playwright and a combined cast of students and faculty. Five teens from Florida and one Chinese exchange student took on the challenge of echoing the voices of Japanese Americans incarcerated following the attack on Pearl Harbor. For some this was their first exposure to this chapter in history, for others their first experience in a theatrical production. They all made a tremendous journey, culminating in that lightbulb moment when a student connects words and facts with empathy. In the end they realized that their “characters” were young people just like themselves. With no more tools than a darkened room, lighted music stands, a projection screen and the clothes from their own closets, they drew the audience in and told the story.

Will any of these students go on to be professional actors? Probably not. Will they all retain a new understanding of this event in American history? Absolutely. The performing arts bridge the gap between understanding and empathy, creating a level of comprehension that goes beyond mere recall. Ultimately, it is this understanding that is the foundation for not just the development of minds but of character. In creating an empathetic connection with something outside their experience, a performer will eventually come to the realization that they are not just telling a character's story, but also their own. In the end, the goal is not simply to tell the story but to tell the story of the world and to realize in the telling that each of us has a place within it.

I don't teach music and drama to create future performers or even future arts patrons. I teach the performing arts in the hope to have some small hand in creating future human beings of intelligence, imagination and compassion. Is there any job better than that?