Welcome to leadership inspired by the principles of arts education.

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Arts Education Leadership

• The Arts and Mattering

• Looking To Enhance Your Leadership Skills? My Cat Has Some Advice For You

Motivation Minute

• Taking Care of Your Wellness in the Age of COVID-19

• Remember That Everyone Is Trying Their Best (Even Though They Might Have A History Of Being Annoying)

Pedagogy

• Continuing the Learning At Home During School Closures

• How to Create a Character Biography

• Globally Minded Education | Theory, Practice and a Response to the 6cs

• Introduction to Playwriting | Exercising Our Creative Muscles

• Less Is More: Minimal Scripts as an Entry Point Into Character

• Master That Monologue Audition

• Maximizing Feedback Practices through Purposeful Conversations

Staging Advice

• Character Development: 3 Questions to Enhance Your Characters

• Acting Tips | 3 Questions To Increase Your Understanding Of Character

Wellness

• Active Reflection Linked To Authentic Need, Not Dictated Activities

• Applying Inclusive Leadership Strategies To Promote Wellness While Digitally Collaborating With Your Teams

• Don’t Erase the Results of Your Break By Adding Extra Stress To Your Return To Work

• The School Year Is Over…What’s Next?

Acting Tips | 3 Questions to Increase Your Understanding of Character

Get your message across to your audience by using questioning technique to fully know the character you’re playing.

Before you dive into rehearsal, make sure to do some of pre-work to bring out the message and meaning of your piece.

I love staging a theatrical piece. 

The act of blocking, and piecing together how your theatrical piece is going to look, sound and feel on the stage with your actors, is one of the most exciting aspects of the creative process.  

As a director, this is an opportunity to take all of the research and background work and turn words, theories and ideas into action.  As an arts educator, it’s important to build to this moment in the rehearsal process with the students.   

I call it the - do you know what you are saying - check-in. 

Sometimes, as artists, we get really excited about staging our that we forget to do the work required to properly communicate the playwright’s message to our audience.

Whether you are staging a monologue or a massive musical theatre production, it’s so important to “know what you are saying” with your theatrical work.  It starts with the basic plot and grows to themes and metaphors depending on what message you would like to convey to the audience. 

So, before you start rehearsing, make sure that you have an firm understanding of the following three things:

1. the plot of the piece, including themes, time periods, and storyline

2. an understanding of WHY the piece is relevant to audiences today

3. a clear understanding of your character’s objectives and tactics.  Objectives are the character’s goals or aspirations. Tactics are things the characters are willing to do to reach their goals.  Doing a detailed character biography can help to align your character’s objectives and tactics with the overall themes and messages of your show.  

Remember:  People like watching performances because they are full of action. Audiences want  you to show the struggle, the conflict and what motivates the characters to do what they do.  Showing this will allow the audience to go on the journey with your character, emphasizing, agreeing and disagreeing with them as they conquer their goals. 

So, my artist friends, before you jump into staging, don’t forget about doing this very important work to make your performance the best that it can be! 

Happy Creating! 

Character Development: 3 Questions To Enhance Your Characters

Character development is about creating unique characters with clear motivations, actions and thoughts. Let’s examine and compare some storytelling lessons from social media through 3 fundamental questions to develop authentic, three-dimensional, relatable characters. The secret: clarity.

Photo by Kyle Head on Unsplash

Why are some TikToc videos and Instagram stories really good with getting their messages across to their audiences? And how does all of this relate to us as theatre artists creating theatrical pieces for the stage?

Let’s take a moment to reflect, compare and apply some content creation concepts to our own theatrical processes.

So, why are these short form video platforms making an impact on how we tell stories for today’s audiences?

It might have something to do with short clips of consistent action.

The most successful videos get their messages across in a concise way that allows their audiences to instantly connect.

What’s the secret?

Clarity.

Creators know what they want to show and get straight to the point, using their actions and movements to express a clear, united story and message. This even applies to trending dances. Which trending dance or tutorials get the most views? The ones that are sharp and polished with the performer expressing clear emotions while upholding the integrity of the original dance.

So, let’s apply this concept of clarity to our rehearsal process by examining three guiding questions:

1. What message do you want to present to your audience? The answer links to your reasoning behind creating the theatrical piece in the first place and why your audience needs to engage with your story.

2. Which movements are necessary to bring out what your character is trying to say? Sometimes, as actors, we can get caught up in having too many movements, adding a gesture for every single word the person is saying. Make sure that your movements are natural and fit the world that you have created for your character. That’s why completing an in-depth character biography is so important!

3. What’s the impact of your work and how does the atmosphere contribute to the piece’s overall impact? Emotions, calls to action and reflection are all possible responses an audience can have when watching a theatrical piece. What are those ‘emotional feels’ and how do those feels help you tell the story that you would like to tell?

Remember: Audiences want to connect. People like watching performances because they are full of action. Showing this action with clarity will allow the audience to go on the journey with your character, emphasizing, agreeing and disagreeing with them as they conquer their goals.

So, my artist friends, what story do you ultimately want to tell? And how will you connect with your audiences using you knowledge of the world, the script, and how messages land with visual, fast paced, moving, world?

Happy Creating!

How To Create a Character Biography

Template and activities for creating a detailed, three-dimensional character biography.

A character biography is a detailed, three-dimensional breakdown of your character’s physical, emotional and spiritual world.

There are multiple entry points into creating a character biography, including:

• question/answer organizers

• creating a visual lookbook/slide deck

• first person, free writing

• hot seating improv game (i.e. answering questions verbally)

Regardless of the approach, a compelling character biography includes questions to guide deep analysis of the “whys” behind the character’s thoughts and actions.

Creativity rooted in textual analysis will help create a character biography that is truly authentic and grounded.  

Here is a sample template that uses the question-and-answer approach to creating a character biography.

The sample template supports the critical thinking prompts found in the Character Biographies: Questions to Create Authentic Characters video.

I encourage my students to use first person voice when completing character biography activities.

Some of the most insightful character biography categories include (but are not limited to):

• cultural and social contexts and situations

• family history

• physical and spiritual characteristics

• philosophies

• health and wellness

• relationships

• wants, desires and annoyances

When creating a character biography, please go beyond the basic facts. Although it is essential to know your character's age, the real work comes from diving into your character's personality, conflicts, and rationale for doing the things they do. Humans are complex beings full of experiences and details. Your characters should be that way too. 

Click here to purchase an editable Google Doc of the Character Biography Worksheet.

Back to Resources For Educators

Applying Inclusive Leadership Strategies To Promote Wellness While Digitally Collaborating With Your Teams

Focus on inclusion and wellness to encourage collaboration and productivity.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Recently my colleagues and I had a digital check-in over Google Meet. None of us had used the software before, so we spent the beginning of time together testing out the features of the software and having a laugh.

Through digital means, we were able to connect with one another, which is so important as the world’s landscape continues to change.

In the article, ‘Social Distancing’ is a Misnomer: We Should Be Physically Distancing, But Remain As Social As Ever,Margaret Eaton states:

The implication of the phrase “social distancing” is that we should be putting space between us socially — but we only need to be distancing ourselves physically. In other words, we should be social and participating in the community at large — just so long as it doesn’t require physical proximity.

Regardless on how you feel on the physical vs. social language debate, this fact remains unchanged:

Indeed, what people need most right now is social connection, because real connection is essential to our mental health.

Thinking about staff and team wellness, how are you facilitating those very important check-ins and encouraging collaboration? Is it through digital conferencing? Phone calls? Instant messaging?

Our challenge as leaders is to think about what our teams would appreciate most with the check-ins. Does the digital conference help your colleague’s wellness or cause more anxiety due to at home demands?

During these unpredictable times, it’s more important now than ever to practice inclusive leadership, tailoring your work activities to model work routines that support wellness while meeting your company’s needs.

Here are some strategies for modelling wellness with your teams:

• Ask for input. Complete a start, stop, continue to see what’s working and what could be tweaked.

• Provide multiple opportunities, formats and platforms for people to contribute to the conversation.

• Don’t ask people to make a decision on the spot. Guiding questions, agendas, and goals can help people process information so the decision is what is best for the team.

• Be creative. Now is the time to try something new. The performing arts industry has turned to streaming and live classes to keep engaging audiences. How can you take a collaboration activity that has worked in the past for your team and adapt it for our new working realities?

• Find laughter in the moments when they present themselves.

In the article, That Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief, David Kessler works through some strategies to help people deal with the grieving process of work before distancing practices. At the end of the day, we are in a new world and need to identify how we are feeling and co-construct our new realities in order to move forward with a mindset of wellness.

Remember, with all of the changes in the world, three things remain the same:

1. Humans need to connect

2. Leadership is about serving others so they can achieve what is necessary to achieve

3. Laughter is essential

Leaders, I wish you and your teams wellness in all aspects of the word as we all move forward into the unknown.