Memories and Motivation

I went to TheatreFest, a Theatre Teacher convention, with my theatre teacher friend Mindy this past weekend. It was great. I got to see a couple of old friends from college, made some new friends and made a lot of connections that might prove useful in the coming years.

More than that, I got to feed my inner-most self. The inner-most self of mine that gets buried almost all the time. It was really nice to be with a couple of thousand people just like me. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching art and I enjoy artists... but they are not theatre people.When I'm with artists, I feel like I'm never good enough, that I don't have enough training or talent or whatever I might be measuring myself against. But when I'm with theatre people, I don't worry about this.. I know that I've got what it takes to do it well, I'm just choosing to live in a different world. That's one of the things I appreciate about my friend Mindy so much. She lets me live in her world and drive her crazy with ideas without me having to deal with actors!!

One of the things I'm taking from this weekend is that I don't have to apologize that I love the world of technical theatre and set/costume/lighting design. I talked with a guest designer and looked at his work and thought, man.. I can do that.  And I can. I have the eye. I have the skills. I just don't have the time.   But I have the students!! And they can compete with theatre kids in contests and I believe do well.

So, I've decided that I'm going to look for outlets for me and my students to explore things I am passionate about. For example.... set design=perspective drawing. costume design= figure drawing and draping. speciality prop items=sculpture.

And why not? I know that most of my art students will not be interested in theatre stuff. However... what art/theatre kid wouldn't want to start with plastic gallon bottle and morph it into an incredible 3d mask... yeah, that's what I thought too. And yes, you all are welcome to come to my class. :)

To close tonight, in case any of you are wondering. No, I don't want to teach theatre again.. Really. I am super happy with my art gig. I was never as successful as I wanted to be as a theatre teacher because I needed someone who loved to direct (and that wasn't me). I would be an awesome tech person for our school, but given our constraints I am well aware that will never happen, so I am thrilled that I get to teach art and play with theatrical design contests on the side!  In fact, give me a few more days and I'll post the awesome work of my art kids on this years contest!! So no feeling sorry for this girl.. I am exactly where I am supposed to be!