Christina Baurle knew something had to change. She had just finished directing her first musical at Port Chester High School and when she asked her students which show they should do next, their suggestions were wildly off the mark.
They were shows that weren’t available for license, shows that were in no way suited to a school setting and shows that didn’t fit the available talent.
Her kids should know better, she thought.
Then, in a lightbulb moment, she decided that this could be a teaching opportunity. Why not get a group of trusted students and teach them the process of choosing a show?
“Not only does that help them become better leaders and feel like they can advocate for a show and have voice in the production and what’s chosen, but it also takes a lot of the pressure off of me, because then if anyone has an issue with it — which there’s always someone — I could say a group of people chose this, and not only that, but it was a group your peers as well. Students had a say in what was chosen.”
Win. Win. Win.
Yes, she agrees, the process means ceding a bit of power and control. But the end result is students who are engaged and who can help to advocate for the chosen play and musical with their peers.
Baurle learned the two musicals her students have absolutely no interest in participating in, choices that might surprise you. They were adamant, and the committee moved on from considering those musicals, lesson learned.
How does Baurle know the selection committee is making a difference?
“I no longer get, not as often anyway, I no long get bizarre show suggestions,” she says. “I think somehow it’s just kind of gone through the student ranks and they’ve realized, ‘OK, there’s a lot more to this process than we realized at first.’”
And the work has already begun — this summer — on “Alice in Wonderland,” the fall play.
Work on “Sister Act” will have to wait.
We also talked about her formative time at Commack High School, when she played in the student pit until senior year, when she was in the ensemble in “Oklahoma.” Her high school director had a penchant for including live animals in shows, until Curly’s horse reacted as any horse would to a gunshot on stage.
Ruh-roh.
We talked about her theater English degree from SUNY Geneseo, which sent her into education.
We talked about her time at a charter school in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn and how there were no staged productions, but her students wrote one-acts that took on serious topics seriously. Among them, a story about all of the missed signs when a student was contemplating suicide. It was heady stuff, Baurle said, and it reinforced the idea that students are capable of more than some people give them credit for.
“When you give students the ability to have leadership roles and to really have a voice in what they’re creating, it’s unbelievable what they can create and what they can do and how much more engaged they are in what they’re doing,” she told me. “And as educational theater, that’s what it’s all about.”
After four years of the selection committee, Baurle says she’s learned some things that will help those considering such a move.
Be choosy when selecting the students for the selection committee. Choose rising juniors and seniors with skin in the game. Choose students across all elements of the production: actors, dancers, crew kids. Use an application to have them make the case for choosing them, including the fact that they’ll have to keep the process under wraps.
Plan for each meeting as you would for a rehearsal. Make sure you do your homework and know everything there is to know before the meeting starts. Make sure to have ice breakers ready to get people talking. And be prepared to draw out those who haven’t spoken, giving them permission to disagree, respectfully.
Trust the process. Your students can do this, Baurle says. Yes, it takes more time, but it takes the pressure off and also prepares you to sell the choice to the administration. The work the students do also trickles down into leadership roles within your theater group, and builds the program’s culture.
What is the process for choosing shows at your school?
Would you consider a play selection committee with students involved?
Comment below.
And do check out the full conversation, either here or wherever you get your podcasts.
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