Teaching Artists Benefit Students
by Jean Schiffman

On a rainy morning in February, teaching artist Susannah Wood, founder/artistic director of Oakland's Opera Piccola, arrives in Miss Marcie's first-grade classroom at Berkeley Arts Magnet School, armed with CDs, books and videotapes. This is her first day of a 10-week session with this particular class, which will culminate in a performance for the parents and school. She gathers the kids--Anthony, Nimah, Misha, Malia and a dozen or so others--into a circle around her on the floor.

"I'm Miss Susannah," she says. "I'm an actress and stage director. I'm invited to do drama here." Immediately a hand waves wildly. "Do you have a question?" says Wood. "I have a comment," says the little girl, launching into a description of her personal experiences with drama.

These kids, and many like them in schools throughout the Bay Area, are the lucky recipients of visits by working theatre artists like Wood, who are affiliated with various local theatre companies. According to the Arizona Commission on the Arts, a "teaching artist" is a practicing professional artist with the skills and sensibilities of an educator. Writes Barbara McKean in A Teaching Artist at Work: Theater with Young People in Educational Settings, teaching artists "are expected to work as artists as well as invest themselves in the creation and implementation of projects in collaboration with other teachers or education staff."

Teaching artists in drama, who either have academic training in arts education or who are trained by the sponsoring theatre, lead students in classroom drama exercises that are integrated into the curriculum and often geared toward a final performance. In some cases, students attend matinees at the sponsoring theatre or watch performances by the teaching artists in the classroom, and are led through pre- and post-show discussions with the teaching artist, often with one of the actors as well. Some theatres offer special professional development workshops for the teachers. Funding for the programs is provided by the theatres themselves (through grants) or by the schools, or a combination of both. In the case of Opera Piccola, Wood is salaried by the theatre, whose main activity these days is arts education, and the schools pay into the program, too. Piccola does 100 residencies a year in the East Bay.

Miss Susannah's class comprises many races and sizes, the show-offs and the shy ones, and it's like herding cats to get them all focused. Focus--and teamwork--are a huge part of the purpose in learning through drama. In fact, teamwork is one of the most important benefits of bringing theatre work into the classroom. In first grade, Wood says, the kids all want to be stars, which makes teamwork hard. In later grades, even as early as fourth grade, it's all about cliques and gossip. So at every level, drama helps make the case for working as an ensemble.

"In drama," Wood tells the first graders, "we help each other. What can we say to each other to help each other?" The kids are quick to respond: "Break a leg!" (Some are in an extracurricular drama class.) "Let's do this thing." "Let's rock and roll!"

The East Bay has several other theatres that send teaching artists into the classroom, including California Shakespeare Theater and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. At Cal Shakes, director of artistic learning Trish Tillman wrote in a February subscriber newsletter, "I have seen children specifically and joyfully benefit from the experience of hands-on theatre arts programs in growing their empathetic, social and intelligent understanding of themselves and those around them."

She notes that studies report that students under an arts-integration curriculum "tend to have a higher academic performance and better standardized test scores than those who are not," and she adds that the less easily quantifiable but equally important benefits of such programs are "learning to work collaboratively to solve problems, achieving the discipline needed to work with tight schedules and deadlines, and gaining the confidence needed to speak expressively before peers and adults and to accept feedback."

TheatreWorks' brochure for its arts outreach tells schools that "we teach your students to use their imaginations to understand concepts that meet California state content standards in an active learning environment" and that when teaching artists work with students, they help "increase students' reading comprehension, vocabulary, and oral presentation skills, while building self-confidence."

Despite what certainly must seem to theatre practitioners a no-brainer--that arts education ought to be part and parcel of every school's agenda--such is not usually the case these days. Wood says that drama in particular suffers: dance can be under the rubric of P.E., and high school teachers who teach art and music must have credentials in those areas, but no drama credential is required to teach theatre. So it tends not to be taught. Elementary school teachers avoid drama, says Wood, because it's so language-heavy and because rehearsals are time-consuming.

Teachers as a whole are hugely overburdened, especially with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program, requiring public schools to administer statewide standardized tests; in some cases, if a school's students' test scores do not improve yearly, that school's federal funds can be cut off.

Thus, as Josh Costello, artistic director of expanded programs at Marin Theatre Company, says, it should be the responsibility of the larger theatres themselves to fill the gap, and, not incidentally, to provide for the next generation of theatre professionals and theatre audiences. "We have the skills, and we've got to give back to the community as best we can," he says.

One of Berkeley Rep's goals in its arts education outreach is to train teachers. "We recognize that you can use theatre arts to teach anything--but teachers don't have the training to do that," says Dave Maier, who is in charge of the program.

So Berkeley Rep provides teaching artists to run free workshops for teachers at all grade levels. (Teaching artists like Maier also go directly into the classrooms--"I can use theatre to teach anything," asserts Maier; "I went into a high-school geometry class in Emeryville and said, 'Who wants to play the radius?'"--but with the dwindling economy Berkeley Rep wanted to help the teachers themselves acquire some skills.) Sample topics: improv, Shakespeare, stage combat, alternatives to staging a full production and more. "We can alter the workshop curriculum to meet the needs of your school," promises the Berkeley Rep brochure.

The problem with teacher workshops, which Berkeley Rep has been doing for five years now, is attracting the teachers. Now the Rep holds the training sessions in the schools rather than in the theatre. The most popular ones are about using improv and theatre games in the classroom.

Maier hired teaching artists for a recent workshop through Sabrina Klein, East Bay arts education consultant (and former executive director of Theatre Bay Area). Other teaching artists are trained in-house. "We try to put a work of art at the core," explains Maier, "a play, a literary work, students' writing, whatever. I used to say, I have to hit this standard or that standard--California state standards for the different subjects and disciplines." Now he formulates a lesson plan first, then works backward, noting which standards he's hit. "The vocabulary is critical to navigating the academic world. Teachers talk about that. They have to be able to show their students can do the things listed in the standards."

Berkeley Rep's teacher training workshops are experiential. Sometimes the teachers are uncomfortable with the exercises. Sometimes they think a particular exercise won't work for their students. Maier discusses problems with them, works out solutions.

"In one way I feel encouraged," he says. "I've seen teachers grow. I have teachers I've worked with for five years that don't need me as much; they can do it on their own." On the other hand, he says, "It's hard for us to justify that what we do is valuable in a system that finds value only in standardized testing. Standardized testing doesn't reach multiple learning styles."

Theatres, too, are under the gun, reevaluating the amount of money they can earmark for going into the schools. But, says Maier, "Susie [Medak] and Tony [Taccone] see that this work has value in the community. It goes back to Berkeley Rep's mission: to make art that contributes to the community. People's lives are changed by the work they're doing in the arts." Maier went to 70 classrooms last year, in addition to the workshops for teachers.

The way that teaching artists interact with teachers is all-important. Teachers are stressed out. For teaching artists, it's not just about hooking into the vocabulary; it's about being mindful of the teacher's priorities. But sometimes when a teaching artist is in the classroom, teachers take that opportunity to grade papers, go out for coffee, go to the copy machine. Maier discourages that because it sends a negative message to the students. He sometimes finds a role for the teachers in the exercises.

In Miss Susannah's session at Berkeley Arts Magnet, Miss Marcie hovers in the background, completely involved and helping with the necessary discipline. Before the first session, she had written down her goals--"how to build scripts...team-building exercises..."--and Wood had devised a lesson plan (various theatre games derived from Viola Spolin and from Wood's own imagination and experience) based on those goals. Then the two of them talked through the plan.

At American Conservatory Theater, Lisa Steindler was in her third year as an acting student in 1994 when she first got involved in the company's arts education outreach. Now she runs dozens of workshops in the schools as part of ACT's ArtReach program, free for low-income, mostly high school students, who come to ACT matinees. "Theatre is by its very nature an exploration of differing points of view," says the ArtReach brochure, "characters in conflict, perspectives diametrically opposed...students gain a greater understanding and appreciation of differences among people...."

Steindler goes into the classroom before and after the matinee, bringing actors from the play with her, and works with a core group of schoolteachers. As the brochure says, the teaching artist consults with teachers about how to incorporate lessons from the workshop into the curriculum, going forward.

"We've done a lot of testing as to what works and what doesn't; we've tried and failed and tried different things," reports Steindler, who also is executive director of Z Space Studio and artistic director of Encore Theatre. It was challenging to find teachers willing to work with her; in classroom workshops, she's had teachers go out for coffee and not come back. She won't return to those classes. "They seem enthusiastic [at first]," she says, "but they don't have the time or head space to make it happen. It's an opportunity to work on their next day's lessons or whatever. Sometimes I'm treated as a substitute teacher.... I've been through it all," she sighs--even being in a school during lockdown, unable to leave.

One teacher, Myrna Maroun, was special--she was more than willing to work with Steindler to bring theatre into her English classroom at Galileo Academy of Science High School in Russian Hill. Maroun wanted to learn, and over the course of five years with ACT's program she ended up establishing an elective drama class, now in its second year at the school. (She continues to teach AP English and Health Ed.) Maroun explains that since the passage of Prop H (the Public Education Enrichment Fund, under which San Francisco provides financial support for, among other things, the arts), she was motivated to establish a drama class.

"I try to integrate theatre in [all my classes]," she explains. She still relies on help from Steindler, who knows how to get the students focused in ways that Maroun herself doesn't. "I'm following content standards," adds Maroun. "The professionals that are coming in know the world outside the content standards." Her challenge is to find a bridge between the standards and the real world of theatre. For example, academic texts teach students that theatre is classic and linear, so Maroun and the teaching artists have to encourage students to view theatre differently, open their minds. That can be difficult: many students come from homes with immigrant parents who do not necessarily see the value of drama.

But, says Maroun, "The more students can learn to make calculated decisions and choices in theatre, that extends to the outside world—not to mention public speaking skills, being able to work with groups, solving social problems. It goes on and on. It's nothing but positive.... Some teenagers are very quiet, Asian girls in particular. It's fantastic to see their voice come out. That's an exhilaration for me as a teacher." As ACT's literature proclaims, "theatre encourages healthy self-expression, promotes teamwork, fosters respect...and develops communication skills."

In Marin County, Josh Costello runs a Marin Theatre Company program for elementary through high school students with programs individualized school by school. The teaching artists are Equity actors from MTC's main-stage shows. Costello says that as the recipient of arts education when he was in school, he knows firsthand that it enhances critical thinking and sensitivity to others.

"In addition to the more obvious things, like learning to use your imagination, [theatre] is a powerful way to practice the skill of teamwork," he adds. "We as a society lose out when schools aren't addressing those needs." MTC has various activities, including sending a teaching artist into the school to prep students for attending a matinee at the theatre. Recently the theatre brought in an entire middle-school class from Marin City to perform the play they'd written, and the whole school came to see it.

On the Peninsula, TheatreWorks has active arts education projects that involve students and teachers. Piper LaGrelius, currently working on a masters in arts education at Harvard, runs a yearly "summer camp" for k-6 students and interested teachers in the Palo Alto Unified School District. This year, LaGrelius is hoping for a two-week session. She uses tableaux, pantomime, rhythms and other techniques and holds acting and music classes daily; teachers observe, take notes on or actively participate in the theatre games. Then the teachers assemble to discuss how to give the games a more academic slant; for example, how to apply pantomime to a study of rocks and minerals.

"Most of these teachers have no arts experience or background," says LaGrelius, who is a certified third and fourth grade teacher. "Unless you have a background, it doesn't come naturally." The first year 3 teachers came; last year (the second year), 10. "Some of the teachers have a misconception about what it means to use arts," she says. "They think it means to put on a play. It's a challenge getting them to understand it's not about hours of rehearsal. It's about how can you use the core tools of the art to teach what you're already teaching. They think it's a much bigger undertaking than it is. We're not saying be a performing arts teacher, but can you use some of these tools in your teaching?"

She wants to empower teachers to incorporate the arts in order to increase student engagement and achievement, and she knows it can be done. "It's a way to make learning fun, exciting, collaborative and public," she says. It's also crucial to get teachers to see that art can be a tool to get at other academic concepts.

And in the North Bay, Sonoma County Repertory Theatre aims to enrich the lives of students and teachers through onsite and offsite workshops designed to teach professional theatre. The company brings productions into the schools (as part of the school district's program for special, skilled students who need to be challenged) and offers pre- and post-show workshops.

"We might be doing A Christmas Carol," explains the program's coordinator, Dan Saski, "and maybe a fifth grade class is studying classic literature, so we'd cater to their needs. We'd meet with teachers about how to tailor the program to the needs of that school, classroom or teacher." In addition, Sonoma County Rep offers residencies, whether four-week, eight-week or yearlong, in which teaching artists work with teachers to integrate the arts into the curriculum. They've been working with one high school for 10 years.

Saski has been working with a fourth/fifth grade class that's studying American history. "We're doing a play about the signing of the Declaration of Independence," he says. "The seventh grade is studying Shakespeare. The sixth grade is learning about ancient civilization--and the Greeks were pretty important in the playmaking revolution!"

Sonoma Rep also offers teacher workshops. "I understand the burden [for teachers]," Saski says. "If I just get 15 minutes with a teacher, that gives me enough time to discuss age, interest, curriculum. It's really up to the teacher. And if they leave [during a class, which they sometimes do], that's fine. They have so much to do." Sonoma Rep's associate artistic director trains all the teaching artists and is always accepting résumés; four to five teaching artists are out in the schools now.

At Berkeley Arts Magnet School, on this rainy day, the kids have played statues, mirror images and other theatre games. They've discussed the definition of drama and sung a song about Rosa Parks. They've taken turns bouncing the ball to each other. They're cooling down now. "Thanks for pretending to be an actor!" Miss Susannah tells them.

"I've seen incredible two-person improvs in first and second grades," she says later, pausing in the hallway before continuing on to the kindergarten class. "In the fourth grade, I tell them [in drama] you can find out what people are like beneath the surface, and then you can't hate them."

With teachers under pressure from NCLB, theatres that can send teaching artists into the schools, and teaching artists who are lucky enough to partner with motivated teachers like Miss Marcie and Myrna Maroun, are clearly answering a higher calling.

Jean Schiffman is an arts writer and regular contributor to Theatre Bay Area magazine.