How to build a drama program

Episode 187: How to build a drama program When Sylvia Davenport-Veith started teaching drama she did everything by herself. Over the years she was able to build a program that supported three drama teachers. How did she do it? What was her vision for her classroom? What’s her advice? Listen in to learn how one teacher built a drama program. Show Notes * Prom Night 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 187 and you can find any links to this episode in the show notes which are at Theatrefolk.com/episode187. I’ve got a question for you. Actually, I’ve got a whole bunch of questions for you! Are you a one-man band in your drama program? Do you feel a little bit like an island where you’re doing everything yourself? Do you dream about being surrounded by other drama teachers in a healthy, thriving, supported program? Well, that’s what our guest today did and she got it. She went from being alone – a one-man band on an island – to building a program that supported three drama teachers. How did she do it? What was her vision for her classroom? Most importantly, what’s her advice to all of you listening? Okay, okay, enough with the questions. Let’s get to it! LINDSAY: Hello, everybody! I am here, talking to Sylvia Davenport-Veith. Hello, Sylvia! SYLVIA: Hello, hello! LINDSAY: Tell everybody where in the world you are. SYLVIA: I am Sylvia Davenport-Veith. That’s what I write under. I live in Oxford, Georgia. I was born in Florida, raised in Florida, earned a BFA in Theatre at University of Florida and an Med in English Education at the University of Florida, moved to the Atlanta area and taught public high school – English and Theatre – for twenty-five years. The last thirteen years, it was exclusively theatre. LINDSAY: Awesome. That’s what we’re going to talk about. The meat of this is going to be all about building a theatre program. Sylvia, when you started, it was just you, right? SYLVIA: Yes, it was just me and I had to take over a situation that I think maybe a lot of drama teachers might be able to relate to and that was that the department had no money. In addition to having no money, the previous situation was that a lot of money had been spent in the theatre department without ticket revenues replenishing that money and there was a $6,000 debt. LINDSAY: Oh, my goodness! All right. Let’s keep that. There’s your teaser, everybody. We will come back to this and we’re going to put a pin on this. So, there’s your little teaser for listening for the rest of this podcast. Did Sylvia get out of $6,000 debt? Don’t tell us yet! Don’t tell us! I also want to make sure I mention that we know Sylvia from her playwriting side. We have her play Prom Night in our catalogue – a lovely little play. I love Prom Night! Let’s start with you. What was your experience with theatre when you were in school? How did you connect to it? SYLVIA: I think that’s really, really important to bring up because, when I was in high school, I started doing community theatre plays when I was ten years old, outside of the school setting. And then, of course, I was always the geek that was president of the Drama Club and all of that. When I hit high school, we had a drama teacher that really wasn’t very interested in us. And so, as students,