Finding it hard to convince your admin about your need to level-up support and funding. Here’s some insight for you that may help you to talk to your admin from their point of view.
For more resources to help you talk with your admin, check out the PRESETT resource library at: https://www.presett.org/resourcelibrary.html
So let’s get into your admin’s mind…
The trouble is… that while schools manage to raise the money for capital projects to build a theatre facility, once the keys are handed over there is no money budgeted to operate these facilities. This typically leaves the high school with a state-of-the-art theatre facility and no one to properly staff it so that it is appropriate and optimal for educational purposes and suitable for practical and safe operational use.
School district administrators, therefore, typically jump to the conclusion that their Drama teachers can run the facility and that outside events that rent the facility can have full reign of this “classroom” with a custodian site supervising. But Drama teachers and custodians are not theatre technicians and managers, and theatres are not like classrooms. Highly qualified management and staff is needed in order to set up the operating systems, create a safety program, maximize student learning, and determine building performance and academic outcomes. The high school theatre is like no space your admin had to manage before.
In addition, when most admin think of a theatre at a high school they think “arts”. They think about the performance aspects; acting, instrumental music, vocal music, dance, variety shows, and so on. However the performances don’t happen in a theatre setting without all the technical factors that go on behind the scenes. Tech theatre is a “Career and Technical Education” (CTE), or vocational, subject. It’s also a STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) subject. Or rather, I like to say: “STTEM” – the second “T” being “teamwork”; something inherent in technical theatre. Technical theatre is in fact a situation where STTEM supports the arts. Sadly, many admin do not know to provide an appropriate education for their tech theatre students, lumping the subject in with the “performing arts”, when in fact tech theatre students usually would like to stay as far away from performing as possible. As well as being a vocational training ground for STTEM, what admin don’t realize, is that a lot of high school theatres also operate as rental “road houses”, which has its own set of challenges to educate your admin about.
As you have probably already surmised, it really is up to you to educate your admin that it is essential to hire a theatre manager and specialized technicians to run your high school theatre, and a Tech Theatre teacher to teach technical theatre to your students. These people have the technical experience, and the temperament and skillset to oversee the theatre’s operations, as well as the knowledge needed for the safety, education and training of the students who work in the theatre. While it is possible to follow a model where a teacher manages the theatre and students staff the shows, it’s not ideal, and can cause a lot of burn out. The happiest Drama teachers I’ve met work at a school theatre which is fully staffed with technical management and technicians.
Another eye-opener for your admin: A theatre in a high school setting without highly qualified management and supervision is akin to students in an art classroom without a highly qualified teacher – they can figure out how to paint a picture or make a sculpture, but they haven’t been taught relevance; theory, techniques, tool usage, etc. Or worse yet, it is akin to students in a woodshop or science lab without a highly qualified teacher – an accident waiting to happen. After the capital budget has been spent building your high school a state-of-the art theatre, district money must be found in order to appropriately and safely run your theatre. Districts should insist that their theatres be staffed with highly qualified professionals, not resist staffing them.
Don’t forget - for more resources to help you talk with your admin, check out the PRESETT resource library at: https://www.presett.org/resourcelibrary.html
