The Essential Question that guided our projects’ focus was:
How do theater artists transform and edit their initial ideas?(CREATE/Anchor Standard 3: Refine and complete artistic work.)
Working with mentors and other theater professionals, students become versed in the play development process, acquire confidence in their work, learn to accept and use feedback to improve their work and gain a lifelong appreciation of theater. Throughout this process, students develop and exercise skills of communication and collaboration in one-to-one mentorship sessions and in the rehearsal setting to refine, transform, and reimagine their own scripts; while also developing and exercising these same skills as active listeners and participants in the work of their fellow playwrights.
At the conclusion of the project, students responded to questions related to the identified Standards:
“First of all, I want to say thank you for coming all the way to work with us it was a life changing moment for sure!
Working with all of you guys gave me a different perspective on how the team of a play works together to fix a scene that doesn’t work or make sense while still making an enjoyable experience. It was inspiring how much teamwork went into every detail.
I hope to have the chance to work with you guys again!”
What I got out of working with the Seven Devils Playwrights was a great look into what is to come if I were to pursue theatre and playwrighting. The people who came to our school were all friendly and energetic, and they clearly loved what they were doing. They helped me personally by answering questions and further grabbing my interests towards the play and theatre production, and it was so fun getting to hang out with everyone in our drama class.
Impact
This was our largest group of playwrights, which offered challenges and opportunities. Using a masterclass model, in which students watched and discussed the rehearsal process of their fellow students (working with professionals) not only increased the opportunity for collaboration, it also allowed students to witness, consider, and engage, a wide variety of issues that may get addressed in the rehearsal process and the many ways in which those issues might be addressed. The result was an increase in student engagement throughout the Conference period, and beyond the requirements of the program, with students regularly attending rehearsals for work being developed within the professional company.
One moment happened when a play in the professional program rehearsing in the theater decided to go back to working at the table, and took students who were observing the rehearsal with them to the new space. During a break the director did an informal Q&A about what they’d just seen. The students commented freely with the encouragement of the director, who noted that their active participation in the process was something they could replicate in support of their own or each other’s work.
Reflection
The best thing we did this year was to offer one-to-one mentorship followed by work in a masterclass setting that involved the entire class. This increased student engagement on every level. Having enough professional artists to support the program was critical. Working with three different directors offered the students three very different perspectives on how to problem solve. Having a dramaturg whose sole responsibility was to lead the class discussion meant that both the rehearsal onstage and the discussion off stage got equal attention. Working with mentors, who already knew the students’ work, we were able to create strong professional support teams.
Another critical factor was that we asked the directors to focus on one or two things that they felt they could really address in the limited time we had available. This created a much better opportunity for students to gain an enduring understanding of “process” as a flexible and creative process that requires time, engagement, curiosity and collaboration. I think that finding ways to target specific, practical outcomes would be the recommendation I would give anyone undertaking such a project.
