Mental health and its role in theatre instruction | An acting teacher in college gave my class an assignment one time to prepare and perform a eulogy about a loved one. The instructor asked us to imagine that our loved one had died suddenly and traumatically, encouraging us to use this as fuel in our eulogies. Not yet understanding that this assignment was not normal (to say the least), my peers and I dove into our projects. We performed for each other a few weeks later, blowing snot bubbles and weeping as we imagined ourselves at our dear family and friends’ funerals. It was after I performed my eulogy (written about my then boyfriend, who is very much still alive), I realized this acting assignment didn’t feel like acting at all.
Tag Archives: TEACHING
Are we playing a game today?
I was chatting with a fellow teaching artist recently about creating more efficient lesson plans. We both agreed we’d like to “cut the fat” and get to the meat of each lesson, but struggled with our limited time with students. My colleague said something that I had a strong reaction to — they said, “maybe I should just cut out some of the theatre games from my lesson plans so we have more time for the learning objectives.” I audibly gasped. Not the theatre games! Those are the best part!
Jenny Winstead-Rodriguez 