Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Building Rome and Being a Renaissance Person

Hello,

I'm Chad Ownby, I am a recent graduate from Longwood University. Last fall, I completed my student teaching experience for theatre education . And what an experience it was. I kept thinking throughout the entire placement that it would be an awesome sitcom. I figured this blog would be a good place to share the experience I had with fellow teachers, aspiring teachers, or anyone interested. 


Directing a show: One of the most rewarding things I got to do during my time as a student teacher was direct a show. I caught the directing bug during my Junior year of college and was given the opportunity to direct and assistant direct a few things. It was an awesome experience and so when it came time to help direct my first high school production it was a very welcome challenge. 

HIgh School Theatre was my first love, so to be on the directing side of things for the first time felt like things coming full circle for me in a way. We began with the Audition. It was actually very challenging because there were only 6 parts and only 12 students or so auditioned. So that process was tough. Eventually we had our cast and began our production. It was determined by my cooperating teacher that I would direct a certain number of pages each day. It was funny how much the difference in our directing experience showed during this time. I would spend all of my planning period a day in advance meticulously writing down every piece of blocking.  When we got to rehearsal and it was his turn to direct, he would just start blocking without having anything written down or anything. And It all made sense! It was very cool to see and it gave me something to strive for. I couldn't help but think "one day I would love to be that experienced" Part of me wanted the instant gratification of being able to do that right then and there, but as the cliche goes, Rome was not built in a day and I still have a lot to learn.
Another cool aspect of the rehearsal process was getting to tech week. While it was really stressful, it was also a great learning experience. The most important thing I learned during this time was that in the role of director and teacher, you literally must be actively involved in the lights, costumes, sound, props, and acting all at the same time. Not are you the director, you are also the sound designer, lighting designer, set designer, costume designer, box office manager, and properties master. You are also going to be doing the majority of the advertising for your production. While you may have great students, (which we did) you still have to find the balance between teaching them to do all of these roles while at the same time making sure they get done right. Essentially, what I learned was that to be a teacher you have to be a modern day renaissance person.
Finally the production opened after about two months of rehearsal. It was quite frankly very rewarding to see how much each and every one of the cast improved since the first read through. Were there mess ups? sure. However, the energy was there and overall the show was a success. It was a long process, but definitely one of the most important learning experiences I have had as a young teacher.

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