A Philosophy for Teaching Theatre to High School Students

by John Ellis

Unfortunately, the overarching academic model that stretches over much of the secondary educational landscape creates resource constraints, including time, for schools. Because of this, administrators juggle limited resources while seeking to meet education department and district standards, fulfill school board and parents’ expectations, and respond profitably and equitably to the understandable jockeying by teachers for those resources. This means that theatre, and the other related arts, are often pushed toward the bottom of high schools’ ladder of priorities.

Even if the administration is aware of the cognitive developmental benefits that theatre classes provide (as well as all related arts), theatre is often viewed as little more than a form of a theatre appreciation class with the main objective of providing the students “a little culture.” Other perceived benefits include providing an opportunity for students to round out their college applications and having another educational avenue for introducing them to literature. While those benefits are real and important, theatre can and should be much more than that. Theatre education in high school is an integral part of the school’s academic objectives. Theatre education provides students with tools in a unique package and ways that are applicable across all relationships, vocations, and fields of study. For those outside of theatre, including school administrators, school board members, parents, and other teachers, this can be difficult to see. So, it’s important that high school theatre teachers articulate a cogent and coherent argument that demonstrates the high educational value of theatre as well as connecting the theatre program to the school’s mission statement and overall academic objectives.

To help theatre teachers (and school administrators) think through this, below is my philosophy of teaching theatre to high school and middle school students. A few months ago, I submitted my resume for consideration for the vacant theatre teacher position at my two oldest children’s school. While my philosophy statement is written with a Christian school in mind (I have ironed it out some so it doesn’t just apply to a specific school), with a few minor tweaks it’s applicable for all secondary educational settings. After submitting my resume, I worked out my philosophy for teaching theatre to high school students – a philosophy I’ve had for years, I’ve just never written it out – in anticipation of an interview. I didn’t get that interview much less the job (I didn’t even receive a courtesy “thanks but no thanks” as an acknowledgment of my interest). So as not to “waste” my work, I have several friends who teach theatre in a variety of schools, some full-time and some part-time, as well as friends who are school administrators. Not to mention readers I’ve never met. Hopefully this can be of benefit to them as well as to parents whose students are involved in their high school theatre program.

When teaching theatre to high school students, my objective is four-fold: 1. Give the students tools to improve both their professional speaking and interpersonal communication skills. 2. Grow their understanding of the mechanics of a story and how to better tell a story. 3. Enable them to trust themselves, take risks, and be willing to fail in the pursuit of growth. 4. Gain a better understanding of the value of collaboration.

My objectives when teaching theatre to high school students do not include turning them into professional actors nor creating prize-winning productions. I explain why not below as well as including brief explanations about my four objectives.

Communication Skills

Struggling to hear and understand student actors on stage is a pet peeve of mine. One of the great benefits of theatre should be voice and diction training that will serve students throughout their entire life, no matter the path God places them on. Doctors, accountants, engineers, construction workers, businesspeople, et al. need to be able to be heard and understood while speaking. Even if the student never gives a formal presentation after their schooling is finished, good interpersonal communication skills will help them interview successfully, build and strengthen relationships, be an effective employee or employer, etc. No matter how well-crafted the argument or message, whether as a formal speech to multiple listeners or in one-on-one conversations, if the speaker cannot be heard or understood, the front-end work of developing the argument or message is rendered largely in vain.

Leaning heavily on Cicely Berry’s classic book Voice and the Actor, I will do my best to ensure that my students understand the mechanics and importance of relaxation exercises for good communication, how and why diaphragmatic breathing is essential to being heard and understood, and how to articulate and annunciate while speaking. It’s important to me that students who go through my theatre program can be heard and understood wherever and whenever God calls them to speak.

Story

Christianity is a story – the Story of how God saves his people back to himself. Too often, though, Christianity is reduced to a series of dry propositional statements and facts. Being able to see those propositions and facts placed in relationship to each other within the Story also builds the ability to see how deeply personal the Bible’s propositions and facts are for and to us. We’re not Christians because we believe with our head. We’re Christians because we’re in Christ; our relationship with our Creator is restored through a relationship of faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christianity is relational and relationships are stories.

The benefits from theatre training are threefold here: 1. Through play and character analysis the students will learn the mechanics of stories; they’ll know what a story is and how it works. In turn, this will help them see and better appreciate the beauty and truth of God’s Story as told in the Bible. 2. Through the acting training and rehearsal process the students will increase in their ability to effectively communicate stories to listeners. Obeying the Great Commission will become easier and more fruitful because sharing the gospel will not be viewed as a formula they have to get right. Instead, sharing the good news of Jesus will be understood and told as a story that’s personal. 3. All other stories ever written or told either retell parts of the Story or rebel against it. Developing an appreciation and knowledge of stories and how they work will help protect the students from the encroachment of false stories into the one true Story in their heart and mind.

Trust

One of my mantras as a theatre teacher and director is that actors need to be willing to be bad in order to be good. Important aspects of making theatre include taking risks and being vulnerable in the service of the story. Taking risks on stage doesn’t mean anarchy, though. It means listening to each other and responding honestly and with humility. It means being able to hear that something doesn’t work and then having the willingness to try something else.

Trial and error in the rehearsal process is where the actor discovers what works and doesn’t. The willingness to try something that may not work can be a frightening prospect for many young actors. It’s also a frightening prospect for most people off stage as well. Being vulnerable on stage is intimidating. Being vulnerable in real life is a hurdle that’s hard for many people to get over, but being vulnerable is an important part of healthy relationships, including in the classroom and workplace.

My acting coaching/teaching is Meisner and improv based. Integral aspects to both the Meisner Method and improvisational acting are trust – learning to trust your instincts as well as your scene partner – and listening and responding truthfully.[1] Like good voice and diction skills, the ability to trust yourself while taking risks is a valuable tool that is applicable across all career fields. Likewise, learning to listen and respond truthfully via acting training gives people confidence in their interpersonal communication in everyday life as well as in their professional role. Similarly, a willingness to be “bad” in the students’ desire to grow in their ability to better tell the story is a tool that will enable them to take on challenges in life and work as well as lessening their fear when faced with obstacles.

Collaboration

Making theatre isn’t just about entertaining and receiving the applause of the audience. It’s about exploring and creating with others for others. It’s about existing in a community that’s pursuing a shared objective.

In our hyper-individualistic society, people live splintered, compartmentalized lives. Theatre calls its participants to set aside ego and individualistic goals in the service of others. It does so while drawing the cast and crew closer via collaboration. Exploring the play and characters together while solving the problems as a team rather than as separate individuals helps spark the realization that God did not create us to be lone wolfs. And that begins with me. My job as teacher and director includes modeling collaboration. It includes setting aside my ego and acknowledging when a student has a better idea or approach than I do. It requires listening with humility and taking seriously the questions and concerns that come up naturally during the making of theatre. It requires honesty when I bump up against a problem I’m having trouble solving and asking for help.

When students understand that theatre flourishes best when collaboration is at the heart of the pursuit, they begin to value collaboration in other areas of their life. The willingness to ask for help as well as possessing the desire to give of yourself to help others is a collaborative mindset that translates well in other classrooms, at home, and at work. It’s also an important part of being fruitful members of Christ’s body. Theatre – good theatre – embraces collaboration and it is an essential aspect of how I teach and make theatre.

The Goal Isn’t Hollywood

One of the temptations for directors of high school theatre programs is the desire to create their own theatre kingdom. This frequently works out in the teacher being more concerned about the final product than the process. Many child stars in Hollywood have acting teachers standing off camera giving them line readings. Theatre teachers have that same and similar options in front of them. But those options are antithetical to my philosophy of teaching theatre to high school students.

My philosophy of teaching theatre (and directing) can be described as process oriented and not product oriented. I’m less concerned with putting a highly polished production on stage and more concerned with my students learning and growing through the process, both as actors and as Christians. I will guide and encourage them but will resist the urge to shortcut their education by telling them how to do something – how to say a line, how to walk across the stage, etc. If the teacher/director is telling the students how to do these things, theatre is stripped of collaboration, trust, listening, and giving. It’s reduced to a top-heavy, one-person vision that makes the story of making theatre anti-relational. The audience may give a standing ovation, but the student actors will have been failed by the teacher/director.

Likewise, my goal is not to turn my students into professional actors. While I do believe that the tools they learn in my classroom and under my direction will help them to become successful actors if that’s the path God has for them, I understand that the overwhelming majority of people who participate in high school theatre will never pursue it as a profession. My overarching goal is to help my students better image their Creator through what they learn about the art of storytelling called theatre.  

Theatre education is an underutilized tool. Used wisely, with humility, and an eye towards helping the students grow holistically in ways that glorify God and help them better image their Creator, theatre will become an integral part of school life while serving the overall academic objectives.

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[1] A note to my theatre artist friends: I’m not sure that a written explanation of Meisner or any other theatre/acting theory is necessary in a written statement intended for non-theatre people. I mean, how do you distill Meisner or Grotowski or Artaud, to list three, into something understandable for non-theatre people without writing an entire book? I imagine that discussions about specific theories and approaches are best done in person and not in a position paper. I could be wrong, though. I’m curious to hear what other theatre artists think. I do believe it’s important, though, to communicate that we’re not making stuff up as we go along. Laypeople are probably unaware that how we approach and make theory derive from rich theories. Letting them know that what we do and how we teach comes from theory is important.