DMP Artist Educator Statement

 Since our first few brainstorming sessions with this group about what we wanted to present on, I have felt drawn to this concept of “limbo” or “Holy Saturday.” The past few years for me have felt like a period of limbo in certain ways, and I’ve been through a few smaller limbo experiences recently as well. It also worked out so perfectly that our final performance falls on the day after Easter! 

While we worked collaboratively, it was fun to see how different we all are and to find ways to use our unique strengths and perspectives to make a more cohesive and well-rounded performance. Because most of our group members are English education majors, I felt like my role in the group was to provide ideas, feedback, and guidance for how we could physicalize our stories, how we could interact with the media we chose, and how to write out our ideas into a cohesive “script.” I am also a very visual learner, so color-coding the script, physically moving around and coming up with ways to use our bodies, and drawing or writing out different things as we worked were some other contributions I made throughout our process. 

This was the first time I had ever tried using verbatim theatre, and now I’m excited to use it as a tool in my future classroom. I would love to use it to teach empathy, to explore topics that are real and applicable to my students’ lives, and to explore character development. Another way I might adapt this assignment in my future classroom is through using soundscapes and/or mediascapes in various projects. These tools are great ways to get students thinking about certain topics differently than they usually would, and can allow certain students to showcase their strengths and others to learn new skills. Soundscapes and mediascapes also add a lot of depth and variety, as they make space for other tools besides just bodies in a space. 

Throughout our creation process, most of our exploration was through a process of sharing and play. We shared stories, shared thoughts, and shared images/texts, and then we would play with what we had shared until we found some ideas or elements we felt like we should include. We started that process until we felt confident with our topic, then we did it again as we were looking for specific stories to include, and we continued that process of sharing and play with each successive layer until we had a fairly cohesive script. Then even in our latest rehearsals, we’ve picked segments we want to work on and played or shared ideas until we find a consensus on what use of space, gestures, etc. will best contribute to our performance.