Way way back in April, I (Matt) had the great honour of being selected to present at “Amplify & Ignite: A Symposium on Theatre For Social and Civic Engagement” hosted by the American Alliance for Theatre & Education. My presentation was called, “Stories Written by Kids: a retrospective on five years of intergenerational artistic collaboration.”
As one can imagine, reflecting thoroughly on Little Mountain Lion’s entire “Stories Written by Kids” series (2020-2024) in a twenty minute presentation was an impossible task (especially as I attemped to sneak in a performance of “Jimbus’ Journey” by Tom, 2021, False Creek Elementary). Now, looking back six months later, I find that my takeaways from the symposium aren’t really shaped by my own presentation, but by the inspiring work of others.
The symposium took place from April 16th-19th at various locations around the NYU Steinhardt campus in New York City. There were several concurrent sessions each day, and I felt spoiled for choice with many compelling topics exploring aspects of Theatre in Education and Theatre for Young People. There were also group meetings and outings planned, including an incredible tour of the beautiful New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Amidst all the impactful places, people and presentations I experienced at “Amplify & Ignite” all those months ago, I find three ideas still resonating within me.
- Roll around on the floor more – Early on the second day of the symposium I attended a session titled “Morning Movement: Embodied Practice” with Nancy Smithner of NYU Steinhardt’s Educational Theatre program. It was kinesthetic, energizing, joyful, collaborative and grounding in both the figurative and literal senses. The session revealed to me how little I actually get down on the floor when I’m teaching theatre. As a performer I don’t shy away from getting down low. For some reason though, as a teacher it’s different. If I’m teaching a stage technique like levels or an improv game like “sit/stand/lie down” I’ll willingly go down and demonstrate, but I can’t say I hit the floor regularly during class. Now I’m feeling the need to normalize the floor more in the classroom. It’s a valuable connection to demonstrate, and I feel like I used to do it more frequently with students. Did I stop rolling around on the floor during covid because of health and safety? Is it just my aging joints resisting? Either way, it’s time to return to the ground. In this work, being on the floor is just as valid a choice as any.
- Climate resilience can be exciting: For both young people and adults, the issue of climate change can be very frightening. Apparently, some people are also now finding it boring. Recently I’ve been hearing some community chatter about how climate-inspired art is wearing thin on modern audiences. Perhaps, for some folks, dramatic works aiming to create climate resilience have had lost their buzzworthiness, but I see projects like “Climate Resilience with Youth: Art for Social and Civic Action” as part of an ocean of exciting, ongoing and evolving opportunities for audiences and artists to engage meaningfully in theatre. The presentation was given by Lara Dossett and Katie Dawson of the Drama For Schools program out of the University of Texas at Austin. Their presentation engaged me as a student who might possibly experience climate anxiety (guess what, I do!), and explored dramatic exercises that connected me to my environment, my sense of self and the people around me. Their work has certainly inspired me to see where LML can go after now having cracked into this issue with “Seaside Fixes Climate Change.”
- Practice “Radical Invitation”: One of the presentations being shared during the same session as mine was titled “A POPPED! pARTnership: Exploring Visual Art’s Role in TVY Devising with Youth” (TVY being Theatre for the Very Young, i.e. infants and toddlers). The presenters, Kendra Kahl and Lucia Kuehn from the Theatre for Youth and Communities program at the University of Northern Iowa, went beyond asking a question that is often heard in both university classrooms and professional rehearsal halls, “Who isn’t in the room?” This is an important question to reflect upon, especially when striving to create theatre for, by and with young people in the community. But the presenters revealed their framework for turning the reflecting into action, and inspired me to begin to consider where the barriers are to LML also enacting “Radical Invitation” within our projects, workshops and productions.
These resonant presentations and other simmering, inspiring thoughts taken from my symposium experience will hopefully guide me as LML continues to strive towards amplifying and igniting young voices in Vancouver.
Stay tuned!
– Matt
