Ep 221 | What the Stage Teaches That Screens Can’t

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Theater can be a mirror, or it can be a window. We can see ourselves in the mirror. We can see ourselves in the characters or in the stories that we're telling, or it is a window into another perspective. Maybe we're seeing a story with scenarios that we've never been through or that we've never seen. And so we're able to open the window and peek in and to relate or not and to experience it together from a different perspective. And I think that's a huge part of what we do is storytelling and seeing ourselves in the stories or also expanding our perspectives on other people's stories.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week, we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every child in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support your child's success. AI can write a script, but it can't teach a kid to feel the room. They're the Escambia County Theater teachers. One of them grew up watching her grandmother's shows in the cafeteria, while the other walked into a classroom in high school and handed the teacher her resume. Both ended up in the same place for the same reason, and both are teaching in the very same programs they're the alumni of. Today they're going to talk about why they think theater education is becoming more essential, not less, and how both legacy and innovation shape their classrooms. Unautomating connection with theater vibes and backstage wisdom. Hannah Simmons and Elizabeth Mealy. Welcome to the show, ladies. Thank you so much for having us. I am so excited about this. And I think we should actually start with some backstory because it's just too good to leave for later. So let's start with you, Elizabeth. You're the oldest of four girls and grew up military, right? Yes. Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

We moved around every three years of my life growing up. And the two things that always stayed consistent for me were theater and my family. We moved here to Pensacola in the middle of my junior year of high school. Whoa. And yeah, and I ended up at Tate High School. Um, I I did, it was me. I walked up with my resume.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

It's me. I'm the problem. It's me.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

I walked right up to the teacher at the time. His name was Mr. Stephen Tooley. He actually just recently retired there. And I walked up and I was like, hi, my name is I was Watson at the time. So I'm Liz Watson, and I really love theater and I want to go ahead and get, you know, established in your department as quickly as possible. Like day one. It was a lot.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

You were like, here are my credentials. Because I look, I am qualified. You know, that's so funny because it's like military kids are just built different.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

You know what I mean? We have to be like it is the only way to survive because every time you move, you have to start over. What would happen is we would okay, so growing up military, like my dad was deployed a lot, and because there were four of us, it was like on my mom all the time. And so she actually introduced us to theater by putting us in week-long programs. And to get you out of that ourselves sometime, I'm sure. And you know what? It worked out so great because we loved it. And that put us, you know, in the place where we were able to have some creative liberties. It gave us an outlet. We felt confident and comfortable in that setting. Of course, while giving my mom that break that she desperately needed. And it just kind of became something that, like moving forward, yeah, we were absolutely like trying to find a place where we could have that creative outlet.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

So, what benefit did theater give you during your teen years that you wouldn't have been able to get otherwise? It's consistent.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

It's something that no matter what program you enter, you are home. And you have a space to be yourself unapologetically. You are given a space where you don't have to mask any of your weird quirks. You get to just be you and you're celebrated for it. And I feel that was essential to growing up in a lifestyle where you had to start over so often. It was like the one thing where I know if I go here, I'm gonna be accepted and I'm gonna be given a place to be me. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Hannah, you're nodding enthusiastically. Did it do the same for you, or were there other benefits that you gleaned from it? For sure.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

I actually kind of the opposite. I grew up here in Pensacola from day one. I went to Cordova Park Elementary School, Workman Middle School, and Washington High School. And for me, all of the places where I found performance was the immediate place to find friends, no matter where we were, no matter what school we went to, even in extracurricular things like the Penn School Children's Course. And I also took things like dance classes and voice lessons. I immediately found a group of students who were like me, who liked the things that I did and who were constantly around. And so we naturally became friends. So I feel like that's a big plus for military students is that when they join our club after school or when they're in a show, they um have a space where they can find a group of friends quickly who like the same things that they do, who work the same way that they work and work hard. And I think that's really special for the theater community and the schools that we have theater in.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Do you feel like the circles that run in theater as far as, you know, the ability to bring in new people, is it more of a porous community than, say, a soccer team? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Yeah. I think here in Pensacola, we have such a close network of performing arts. We work hand in hand with the theater communities and departments at PSC and at UWF. We have lots of students who do the Pensacola Little Theater shows. And so there is a network that already exists that students grow up in and we grew up in, but also at the same time, a new student who comes into it, there isn't a lot of, you know, anxiety about not knowing everybody or not fitting in. It's all very welcoming. And there are students who do lots of them. There's students who only do one of those elements. And so no matter what, the different groups of students who get to perform together, they change. But at the same time, you can grow up together over years with the same friends and the same people, is just cool.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

And I think it's important to highlight that there's a space for anyone within that community of theater. And I say that because you don't have to be a singer, you don't have to be a dancer, you don't have to like your target talent doesn't have to be performance-based. It can also be I am a really great costume designer, or I really like designing how the lights, you know, tell the story on the stage, or I I like to paint. I like there's a space for any type of like interest or talent that you may have. There's a spot for you, no matter what.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Yeah. That does sound different than, say, athletics. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

And we have students who do a lot of all of it. You know, students don't just specialize in one element. I have students who are both singers and who pick up a paintbrush or who want to direct something themselves and do student run, and also we'll be working in ensemble as a and a team together. So there are places for them to cross between being in the front in the spotlight and the lead, and also working behind the scenes, working with a team, being responsible for a bigger project than just the one, which is cool too.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

What a magical land. Absolutely. And Hannah, your origin story. Yeah, it goes back away.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Yes. Will you share? Yes. So I started working at Washington in 2023. Before me, my mother was the drama teacher at Washington, Miss Barbie Spears. She started as the drama teacher in 2012. And I was in her program. She was my teacher. And then before her, though, my grandmother was the drama teacher. She started the theater department at Washington in 1983. So this will be the 43rd year of this program in my family. Wow. That is incredible. They are the dynasty of theater. Like you said, I grew up in the cafeteria stage at Washington, seeing my grandmother's shows. Some of my earliest memories of theater is being really little and sitting in the cafeteria seats and then getting to be on the student end. I was a heavy performer. I was a singer. I was a dancer. I did all the shows. I was also in all of the tech classes. So building and painting and sewing. I went to college for theater. I went to Florida State, graduated in 2020 in my living room, and said, okay, well, what's next? And I got a job here in Escambi County at a different school first for three years. And then this magic transition happened. And I'm really happy with how it turned out. It is the dream job. And I couldn't imagine doing anything else right now.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

When you meet other professionals roughly your age who didn't grow up in such a theater-rich family, do you ever reflect on what being in that theater environment gave you that you would have missed out on otherwise? For sure.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

I always tell people if my family played softball, I would be out of the softball field every day. And I would naturally like softball and I would want to grow in that environment. And so it's very similar. I think I grew up in a time where I wanted to be a leader. I wanted to perform. I wanted to, like I said, I was involved in Pin School Children's Course and other outside community performance opportunities because I loved it. I loved my education side, all the mentors I had growing up. And then to come back around on the college end. I, the first week of at Ford Estate, I went to the auditions to be in the shows and I left saying, okay, I don't want to do that anymore. This is not for me. So what is for me? I ended up going a back route of stage management, which is like the people in charge. They're organizing all of the technical departments, they're organizing the director and actors. And then during the show, anything that happens on stage is because a stage manager said so. So they're like running performances. And so I did that professionally for a while. I loved it. I hated it. I decided that I wanted a white picket fence and to be near my family and health insurance. And so then I went the education route, which I did avoid. I avoided it for a minute, but I'm really happy. And I think from going from a performer to then going to behind the scenes and now an educator, I'm able to like see all three sides and to be the leader that the teaching job needs and the directing job needs, while also enjoying the technical side and having that education to be able to work safely with power tools and create a design and a vision for what I want it to look like. And I think that's really unique for any theater person. And when my principal asked, well, why, why, why do you want to be here? Why do you want this job? I said, because of my education from Pensacola and because of my education from Florida State, I want to share that same love and passion that I felt from all my mentors with any student who wants it to. And so that's why I decided to come back and do this. And then I love it. Fast forward, how did y'all meet?

SPEAKER_00 12:02

So we were in a production at the Pensacola State College. They do a summer program. They call it the Summer High School On Stage Workshop every summer. So this is kind of a plug where they invite any incoming ninth graders and any outgoing seniors to come from any of the schools in the greater Pensacola area and perform a show together throughout the summer. And Anna and I met doing the wedding singer over there at Pensacola State College way back in 2013.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

I just finished my freshman year in high school.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

And I just finished my senior year.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Wow. So that was a lot of fun getting to wear 80s costumes and sing and dance on stage with Liz.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

It was so fun.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Okay, so you both have this interesting set of life experiences, both educationally and both just as someone plugged into the theater world. How has all of that shaped how you run your own program at your school? Okay, great question. So she sits back in her seat. Prepare, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna rewind just a little. I had kind of a similar experience that Hannah did where I was going down one path and like kind of got shifted around. So I was primarily tech throughout high school. And when I did show up with my resume, it was like all tech work. And I was like, I can do this. Oh, my sister also does this. So you could just make us do all the work that you don't have anybody doing right now. And one day a student who was supposed to come do the sound check didn't show for her sound check. And we were about to open the house, and Mr. Thule was like, get up there and sing. And I was like, dude, I don't sing. That's not happening. And he was like, Well, somebody needs to do it. We need to open the house. And I was like, okay. So we go up there and I started singing, and he's looking at me and I'm uncomfortable. I am like, this is not where I want to be right now. And he comes up to me and he goes, If I knew you could sing like that, I would have thrown you in the show. And I was like, uh, what? And so then he kind of talked me into going the more performance route. And it it changed the trajectory of my entire life. I ended up going to Pensacola State College for performance. I went to University of West Florida with a BFA and musical theater. That being said, how I run my program is everything is student-driven, student created, and no student is locked in one box. And I say that because some students think, oh, I'm just a techie, or I'm just a performer. And in my program, and I'm sure Hannah runs it the same way tech and actors are at the same level. There is no one hierarchy or whatever. We are all working together for the same thing. But I have students who will do a bunch of tech work before production and then also perform in the show. I have students that will want to choreograph but not be in the show, but want to share those like types of skills that they possess that I don't. Everything is 100% student-driven, student created. With it being so open and not forcing students to be like, okay, well, you chose this, so this is what you do. It gives them so much more well-roundedness for the real world. Not just in school, not just in the theater community, but in real life. You have you now possess so many skills. You can create things with limited resources. You can speak in front of people without there being an anxiety or an uncomfortable feeling. You can empathize with people and feel you know what they're feeling and understand and be there. Like it just Do you get where I'm coming from? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Yeah. So back to like running class or our programs. I have things that lesson plans that we do at Washington that have been there since day one, 1983. And you still use them. And I still use them, yes. Wow. Because they work. They're very much like fundamentals, establishing foundation in that theater one entry-level class activities. And they work. They work every time. And what I also like about doing them is that they grow then this like idea of legacy. Every student remembers that activity. It's a specific one I'm thinking of is a specific scene that we do. I'll shout it out. It's called Pureot and Columbine. Those are the two characters. And I'm now at a weird spot, also, where my students, their parents had my grandmother as a teacher. No. And I've had multiple parents come up to me and say, Oh my gosh, I remember Perot and Columbine. I remember the words to this day. And now their student is doing Pure and Columbine. We also have a winter holiday show that was done for a long time. And then we stopped doing it. My mom stopped doing it around COVID. And then I've brought it back the last couple of years. And same thing, these parents are saying, Oh my gosh, I played this character. I played Santa. I played the elf, whatever it was. And so this line of legacy that makes it more personal to families and to students and to me too. I feel so excited when parents share that with me because they didn't have to share that with me. These are the we're providing memories for these students that they're going to remember the rest of their life. You know, they may not remember what math problem they did in math in the eighth grade, but I love that you're coming after math.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

I love math. I do do love math. Oh, I do. I was just thinking, yeah, let's go after math because my seat theater is so opposite. Because Elizabeth, you're talking about empathy, emotional intelligence. Hannah, you're talking about memory, camaraderie, and sort of this school pride feeling. And so we're like, haha, take that math.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Well, to plug math though, we use the real world applications of math. Oh. My first year at Washington, I wanted to build a ramp in my show. I wanted to be able to like skateboard down a ramp. And we had to find the area of the slope. And I had my kids with a piece of paper and pencil, and they're like, this is easy. Math. I'm like, but look at us using it. I had to find the angle. We had to cut it correctly on the angle, and it had to perfectly make sense and have a smooth slope. And it worked. I was so proud that we were like applying math skills into our class. Same thing. My students build everything. We have a class dedicated to the tech and the behind-the-stage stuff. So they are hands-on experience with power tools, with sewing machines and paint. They come in, oh my gosh, I ripped my jacket. Can I fix it? And like, yes, you can. You know how to fix it. Let's go. Let's get it out. And they do. And so the real world connections of what they learn in other classes and what they learn in mine, we then put forward for an audience. Everything we build is gonna be in the show. And so it needs to be done safely. It needs to look aesthetically pleasing. It needs to match my vision as the director. And while also having the student input on it and student leadership to make it done on a deadline or to make sure that it is complete before we need it in rehearsal, those things apply to higher level.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

Okay. So what I'm hearing you say, style-wise, is ownership, Elizabeth, and tradition, Hannah. And also initiative. Yeah. So those three things, it sounds like that's kind of what summarizes your philosophy of theater ed, I would say. Absolutely. But I want to circle back to the empathy part because that's something that I think overall as a species of, you know, earthlings, we find important. We think we, you know, we need to have more of this. But I don't think anyone really has a system or a plan. It's definitely not a course that you're taking. Right. But it's something that we find we need more and more, especially as screens do provide this false sense of protection due to anonymity. Oh, look at me with my two thumbs telling this person what I think. Whereas that face-to-face interaction, the reading of the facial expressions, sensing that person's emotions, that all tucks neatly into theater, even though it's not like welcome to empathy class. What does that look like or feel like since we're talking about empathy in y'all's classes?

SPEAKER_01 20:21

So there's this quote, I don't know where I ever saw it, but that theater can be a mirror or it can be a window. We can see ourselves in the mirror. We can see ourselves in the characters or in the stories that we're telling, or it is a window into another perspective. Maybe we're seeing a story with scenarios that we've never been through or that we've never seen. And so we're able to open the window and peek in and to relate or not and to experience it together from a different perspective. And I think that's a huge part of what we do is storytelling and seeing ourselves in the stories or also expanding our perspectives on other people's stories.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

That's so true. Yeah, you do see yourself in stories. I mean, that's why any sort of movie or show, you know, you think I've definitely watched shows. There's one called Animal Control. It's a comedy. There's a character in there who loves to share animal facts. And when we started watching it, my husband looked at me, he's like, That's you. And I'm like, that is me. As the character goes on, I'm like, oh my gosh, he's so annoying. I am so sorry. You know, so I could see where just from that silly little example, that theater would create a greater sense of self awareness and an opportunity to try on different versions of your personality while still maintaining authenticity.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

I also think it puts it back on the audience too. Our job while we were telling these stories is to, you know, if it means a call to action or a message. Or a reflection. We want our audience to feel all of those things. We want them to root for the main character, or we want them to boo the villain. We want them to cry for us and our story or whatever is happening on stage. And so it is about creating this live experience in the room. And that's what makes theater so special. I have this debate with my students every year on, you know, why is theater separated from things like TV or movies? And it's because it is a live art forum for a live audience in the room. And things can change. Things might go wrong, but we're all experiencing that one moment and then it's gone. And I think that's really cool. And it's hard to sell also. It's hard to sell like tickets to something that doesn't, you can't take it home. But it's also like being at a concert. It's very similar. You know, we're here to sell you this experience and to all be at this one place at the same time, which is really unique and hard.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

That's really beautiful, though. Elizabeth, do you see your students grasping that? Do you think that it sinks in or like right away? Or is that something that they work up to that connection cognitively?

SPEAKER_00 23:13

I think they start to feel it when the audience is there. Oh, really? Yeah. Like we talk about it, we talk about it. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse when I'm telling them. But the minute the audience is there, you see something click in the students. They have that interaction, they feel the energy, they feed off of the energy from the audience. We just did Shrek the musical. And this is gonna be real fun for empathy. We did Shrek the musical last year in February, and we had like the largest audience turnout we've ever had. And there are people crying in the audience at this ogre who is sharing his heart. He is wearing it on his sleeve for the first time at the end of act one. And you're like watching this happen. And I'm sitting in the audience, just like watching the audience a little bit because I've seen it. And I'm looking at them, and then the lights come on because it's the end of act one, and you see the audience kind of like sit still for a minute. Nobody's like getting up right away, and then you hear like all the sniffling, and you're like, oh my gosh. And never in my life did I think I would sit here and be crying because I feel bad for this ogre. You know what I mean? But it does, it creates a really strong sense of empathy within the audience and the the students, they feed on it. They feed on it so hard. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

I would, I've never would have guessed that having the audience there is such an important part of driving it home. You know, all the things that you said are such good concepts. They're I mean, truly like philosophy, but to solidify it through performance that wasn't on my mind. But I can see why that's a key ingredient and how special that community can come and be a part of a child's development while being entertained. I mean, I actually just always thought, like, if you went to a child's performance, whether it's music or theater, I mean, you were kind of just doing something nice. Unless it's Christmas and then I'm like, yeah, I want to hear some Christmas songs. Thank you. But beyond that, I mean, it feels very like auntie-ish to be like, I'm gonna show up and watch you do the thing, and that helps you in a way that is invisible to me at this moment, but is real and true and will impact your life as it has before. Oh, and you'll be moved. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Like you'll absolutely be moved. And I know Liz does this. I offer a free ticket to anybody with a Scambi County badge. I want teachers, I want my admin, I want people from the community to come and see our stuff and to support our similar students. I also love that all the theater teachers in our area, we're all very close friends. Our students are close friends. And so we want nothing but support for each other and positive experiences. We celebrate each other hardcore. Our texting group chat is nonstop. Oh, it's always popular. And just because we have we decided that it was important to us to have that as a relationship between teachers. So my musical this past year was a take on fairy tale princesses. It was a kind of newer musical, but it was all set to Britney Spears' music. What?

SPEAKER_02 26:21

It was very fun.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

What?

SPEAKER_02 26:23

And okay, I need the official invite to these. Absolutely. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

And I had the most teachers come that I've ever had come to a single performance. They were showing up and they were coming multiple days in a row because they were just so excited for their students and for me and my program. And they had never been to one of our shows and they'd seen the posters and things, but they really made the time to come. And they keep stopping me in the hallway asking, when's your next show? What are you doing this year? Are you excited? And I love establishing that culture on campus because we do those things naturally for sports programs. We celebrate them. We have the pep rallies, and that's a big part of the community buy-in and our school's buy-in. And so my push this year is to also include the fine arts in that same energy because we've had a lot of celebrating at Washington this past year with athletics, and we have a lot to celebrate too this year on the arts end. And moving into students also, we have a lot of students who do both. I have tons of students who are athletes and cheerleaders, who are in band and choir, who are in ROTC. So to be able to share the celebrations of those same students throughout all of their different talents and after school stuff is really special on campus.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

It makes a difference for not only the teachers, because like the teachers get to see their students from a different point of view, but they also it means so much to the students. They're like, my math teacher came, or my oh, 100% history teachers showed up. And we got real lucky this last year. My student council at Tate High School, they established a spirit week for the week leading up to opening of Shrek. And we had Shrek Day, where it was like dressed in green and wearing the ears and stuff. And we had a Farquad day where everybody wore a bob. And that was it was iconic. And we had games during lunches. They set up pin the tail on the donkey at lunches where kids could win like green lollipops and green ring pops and stuff. And like it created such, I don't know, it just it made like the what's the word school spirit? Is this what I mean? Spirit looking like moving into the the opening of Shrek. I mean, students were coming in droves to the performances, teachers were coming, community members. And it was because they like really built it up and it made a difference. I mean, it's the same with sports. Like Hannah was right, with the the pep rallies and the spirit days, then people are excited to show up. And I was so grateful and like touched that Tate High School did that for us. And the students felt like they had a space within their student body as well. Like they felt seen and they felt celebrated for the work that they do by their own student body.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

Yeah. So it was really neat. I think this is the perfect segue to talk about your upcoming performances. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

So we our fall is getting very exciting. Our drama club at Washington High School is doing a fall show for the first time since before COVID. We are doing a one act called The Monsters Under the Bed. It is about a group of girls having a sleepover and they're talking about their fears, and then their fears personify as a monster and creep out from under the bed. And so they have to help each other like overcome their fears and banish the monsters back under the bed. So that will be November 5th and 6th. I'm looking at about 7 o'clock PM. So that's very exciting.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

We are also doing our very first fall show. We've not done one since I've taken over at Tate. And we are doing a one act, it is called Soundscapes, and it is about a young lady who is navigating a newfound diagnosis of synesthesia, which is when you can like hear and see sounds like as colors. So we're really excited about that, and we'll be taking that to competition. So that'll be sometime in November at Tate High School. And then our big spring musical is going to be Frozen the musical at Tate High School. And we will be running that in February for two weekends. So we are really excited about the big things coming at Tate.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

Okay, that's February 2027, right? Okay. That is amazing. This has been so fun. I feel like our time has flown by. I could talk with you ladies for a long time. I hope this inspires people to plug into theater and whether it's in the audience or on stage or backstage or in some creative, supportive way. I appreciate you so much. I've had a blast. Thank you so much for having us.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

This was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Escambia County Public Schools.