Facilitating a student led production

Episode 210: A Facilitating a student led production Have you ever sat back and let your students take control of a play? How do you let students learn from the struggles throughout the process, rather than making the decisions for them?  Drama teacher Saran Hankins shares her experience facilitating a student driven production. Show Notes Shuddersome The Myths at the Edge of the World Drama Teacher Academy Episode Transcript Welcome to the Drama Teacher Podcast brought to you by Theatrefolk – the Drama Teacher Resource Company. I’m Lindsay Price. Hello! I hope you're well. Thanks for listening! This is Episode 210, and you can find any links to this episode in the show notes which are at Theatrefolk.com/episode210. Today, we’re talking about student-driven work. Have you ever sat back and let your students take control of a play? Now, how does that make you feel? Does that make you feel excited, nervous, nauseous? How do you let students learn from the struggles that they’ll find throughout the production process rather than making the decisions for them? That’s exactly what our guest did with a recent production of Shuddersome, and it is a great conversation, so let’s get to it! I’ll see you on the other side! LINDSAY: Hello everyone! Thank you for joining us! I am here with Sarah Hankins. Hello, Sarah! SARAH: Hello! LINDSAY: So, first of all, please tell everybody where in the world you are right now. SARAH: I am at Clinton High School in Clinton, Mississippi. LINDSAY: Nice, very nice, and how long have you been at your school? SARAH: This is my third year teaching at Clinton High School. LINDSAY: Oh, and how long have you been a drama teacher? SARAH: This is my seventh year. I’m about to finish up my seventh year. LINDSAY: Very good. Okay. So, seven years in, what is the thing that keeps you teaching? SARAH: Honestly, the students because they change so much, and you just get to build these relationships with them that, you know, your normal classroom teachers don’t have. So, they honestly keep me coming back, day after day. LINDSAY: Awesome. Well, that’s good. It’s good to have something that keeps you coming back. I know that’s not the case for everybody. What was it that made you want to go into teaching and being a drama teacher? SARAH: Well, funny thing is – and I just shared this story with students earlier – I actually swore I would never become a school teacher. And then, it just kind of hit me that I would be missing something,