Educational Theatre is the Bridge

Episode 128: Educational Theatre is the Bridge Craig Branch is a Educational Programs Manager with the Educational Theatre Association. He started out with theatre in high school, pursued a professional career and found his passion with theatre education. Craig talks about his journey and his goal to use educational theatre as a bridge. Show Notes * Educational Theatre Association * 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. Welcome to Episode 128. You can find any links for this episode at the show notes at theatrefolk.com/episode128. So, today, a little arts education confab. Today, I’m talking to Craig Branch. He works for the Educational Theatre Association and my association with the Educational Theatre Association – ha ha ha! – it goes back a long, oh, a long time. Here I am, here we go, I’m about to put on my old sweater – my old sweater. I went to the first festival in ’96. Uh, it has to be before that. It might be even in ’95. So, Craig and I were living in North Bay Ontario – about three or four hours north of Toronto, for anyone who likes geography – and, at that time, North Bay happened to be one of the only, if not the only Canadian chapters of EdTA in terms of thespian activity – one-acts and workshops and that kind of thing. I have this very clear memory of a one-act festival. We were teaching workshops and someone came up to us and said, you know, would we like to teach workshops in Lincoln, Nebraska, which may sound like a scam except, if you’ve been listening, you know that Lincoln is, of course, where EdTA holds a very large international thespian festival. Craig and I have been involved, we went for three years in the 90s just as workshop presenters, and then Theatrefolk has been going since 2004 and it is now 2015 – again, math – a long time, right? It’s a long time. When I was thinking about doing this intro, I really don’t have any idea who that person was. I have no idea who came up to us and said, “Hey! Would you like to go teach in Lincoln, Nebraska?” It was a guy. He must have come to a workshop or someone came to a workshop and I don’t know what it was. I don’t remember having any other conversation other than, “Would you guys like to teach in Lincoln, Nebraska?” At some point, a proposal form must have come our way. All of that, it’s such a long time ago, I don’t remember but what I do know is that, without that very first invitation, Theatrefolk wouldn’t be where we are today. It was that twack, I guess, which led us down the educational theatre path – going to festivals, seeing workshops, and really becoming aware, how much aware of what drama teachers do, what drama teachers need, and going to the International Thespian Festival in 1996. That’s what put us on the educational theatre path which I’m really grateful for. It certainly wasn’t the one that I thought of when I was young and in school but it’s certainly one of the most rewarding and I wouldn’t have it any other way. So, let’s hear about someone else’s path towards theatre education and Craig Branch. LINDSAY: Hello, Craig! CRAIG: Hello, everyone! LINDSAY: Awesome, very nice to have you here on the podcast. First of all, tell everyone in the world where you are. CRAIG: I am at my desk at the Educational Theatre Association which is here in Cinci...