Directing the School Musical

Episode 147: Directing the School Musical Directing a musical is a daunting feat. Directing a musical with students can be overwhelming! In this podcast listen to three teachers talk about their experience directing musicals at the school level. How do they do it? Why do they do it over and over again? Show Notes Shout Theatrefolk Blog Episode Transcript Welcome to TFP – The Theatrefolk Podcast – the place to be for Drama teachers, Drama students, and theatre educators everywhere. I’m Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk. Hello! I hope you're well. Thanks for listening! This is Episode 147. You can find any links for this episode in the show notes at theatrefolk.com/episode147. Happy New Year! Welcome to 2016! Are you ready for a brand new year? Personally, I feel that 2015 sped by really quickly, way too fast. But, you know, the older I get, that would be the general consensus I have of all of the years and all of the days. It’s kind of like a freight train and so we better enjoy every day, right? That’s what we’re doing. We’re enjoying every day that comes and I can tell you – nice segue, Lindsay – I truly enjoyed recording this podcast. Ah, see how I did that, ha? Ah! So, this episode is about directing musicals and, while we here at Theatrefolk don’t specialize in musicals, we have one, “Shout” – an a cappella musical, check it out – Shout, show notes, Shout in the show notes, Episode 147. Just because we don’t specialize in it doesn’t mean that you don’t specialize in it. And so, in this episode, we have three teachers who put on musicals on a regular basis and they talk about their experiences. Let’s get to it! LINDSAY: Hi Kim! How are you? KIM: Great, Lindsay. LINDSAY: Awesome. Okay. So, how long have you been connected to musicals? KIM: Oh, my goodness! Since I was in fifth grade. LINDSAY: Yes? KIM: I’ve been in musicals, loved musicals. And then, in college, of course, I studied Theatre, love it. Worked professionally, love it. Musicals are my very favorite thing. LINDSAY: So, what led you to become a teacher? KIM: I always loved sharing what I do and, my whole family, they’re in teaching. And so, of course, I started by being a swimmer and I taught people how to swim and I thought, “Oh, I’m good at this!” and people listen to me so I started choreographing at a young age, working with big musicals, and then I just went into education. Now, I love it. LINDSAY: So, what was your first musical? Do you remember that? KIM: That I was in? LINDSAY: Yeah. KIM: Yes, I was in Fiddler on the Roof. LINDSAY: And who were you? KIM: I was just one of the many children put in this show because children sell tickets and I was put with random adults and we were a family. LINDSAY: What do you remember? Because I remember, we had lots and lots of records and I remember singing away to musicals. It was the songs that connected me first. KIM: Well, what connected me was the director. LINDSAY: Ah. KIM: I’m from a one-stoplight town and in came this amazing woman. LINDSAY: Yes. KIM: And so, I followed her. But, yes, I was always singing and in front of people in my small little town. What connected me was that I got to sing and dance and act and move scenery and I thought that was really cool in one two-hour period. LINDSAY: Yes! Yes, absolutely!