Podcast 406, Drama and Theatre in Education (12-10-20)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.

On this week's podcast I discuss drama and theatre in education with Madeline Michel, a teacher in Monticello High School in Charlottesville Virginia. Madeline was the 2019 winner of the Tony award for excellence in theatre education. Among the topics we discuss in the course of the podcast are the following:

• How she approaches theatre education
• How a sports –competitive – paradigm is mistakenly applied to the arts
• Theatre in education versus drama in education
• How she tried to make her class more diverse
• Teaching multiple grades in her classes
• Letting students know that their stories and their talents are important
• Her credo: art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable
• How she became interested in theatre in education
• What she reads
• How education is a microcosm of the wider world
• Stimulating teenagers to write plays
• The first day in her drama class and building community
• Collaborating with other teachers
• Staging a school production
• The importance of dance and movement in a production
• The shortcomings of drama on Zoom
• What students learn through drama
• Assessing drama
• Winning the Tony Award for Theatre in Education
• She recommends the Nice White Parents podcast: (about school segregation in New York City)

Thanks to John Heffernan who suggested Madeline as a guest for the podcast.