Middle School Theatre in a Rural Community

Episode 126: Middle School Theatre in a Rural Community Patrick Derksen works in a school with 200 students. In total. He’s a grade eight classroom teacher and playwright who decided five years ago to make theatre with his students. Find out how he does it, why he thinks theatre is important in middle school and his advice for other rural teachers wanting to do the same. Show Notes * A Lighter Shade of Noir   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. You have reached Episode 126 and you can find any links for this episode in the show notes at theatrefolk.com/episode126. Okay. So, Patrick Derksen, he works in a school – a rural school that has 200 total students. So, that’s it; that’s from kindergarten all the way up to Grade 8. He’s a Grade 8 classroom teacher and he’s also a playwright. We have his play, A Lighter Shade of Noir. Five years ago, he started putting up plays with his students. Just like that, he made a choice to include theatre at the middle school level, and I just think that it’s always a fascinating choice when something didn’t exist before and now it does, and let’s hear why he made that choice and how he has developed it. LINDSAY: All right. Hello everybody! I am sitting here today with author and teacher, Patrick Derksen. Hello, Patrick! PATRICK: Hello! LINDSAY: Hi! So, Patrick is one of our Theatrefolk playwrights. He has a play with us called A Lighter Shade of Noir which I absolutely adore. It makes me laugh. The sign of a good comedy for me – because, when we read these plays, Patrick, there’s so many times we have to read them from the first initial read to going through numerous proofs to seeing it published and the sign of a good comedy for me is I just giggle every time I look at this play. You are also a middle school teacher. PATRICK: Yes, primarily. LINDSAY: Primarily. That’s the main gig. PATRICK: That’s the main gig. LINDSAY: And how long have you been a middle school teacher? PATRICK: This is about ten years now, I guess, yeah. I had the ten-year award. LINDSAY: You got the pin. PATRICK: I’m like, “Really? Ten years already?” Time flies! LINDSAY: Absolutely! And so, why middle school? Why is that where you sort of hang your hat? PATRICK: Originally, I’d planned to be a high school teacher, I guess. But then, things took me to a middle school and I found out that I loved it. I love the kids and I love the staff. It’s kind of a whole different ballgame. In middle school, you’ve got to think on your feet a little bit more and go with the flow and it’s great. LINDSAY: It’s really funny because I think you have to have that very specific mentality to relate to middle school students. PATRICK: Yes. LINDSAY: What about them is the most fun to teach? PATRICK: Yeah, like I said, I think just the fact that they’re coming out of the learning ABC’s kind of thing and then you can really start to work with them and take them into territory that is new for them and, yeah, it’s just a fun, fun age to see them coming in that and they’re still eager – unlike maybe some high school students.