1.10 A Conversation with Marisa Brady
This week Jimmy talks with Marisa Brady, a middle school theatre teacher in Chandler, Arizona. She talks about her love for middle schoolers, student travel, parent booster clubs, and much more!
Marisa’s Recommended Resources:
JIMMY CHRISMON:
You're listening to episode 10 of THED Talks with Jimmy Chrismon. THED Talks is a podcast for theatre teachers and theatre education students. I am Doctor Jimmy Chrismon, theatre education professor at Illinois State University. Each week I want to bring you stories and interviews from experienced K12 theatre teachers, current theatre education majors and professors of theatre education that will warm your heart, renew your faith and teaching and provide resources to better your practice in your theatre classroom. Thank you so much for listening. I know you all are winding down your school years and uh, my guest this week is no different. Um, so I wanna make sure, um, you know how to get in touch with me if you want to give me any feedback. If you would like to make suggestions for topics for the show or if you'd like to be considered to be a guest on next season's, uh, next season's episodes, please reach out to me at, uh, thedtalkspodcast@gmail.com. And of course you can always find our archives and our show transcripts as well as the resource list from all of our teachers that have been on the episodes on www.thedtalks.com now it's time to give our attention to our guest this week. I want to welcome Marisa Brady to THED Talks this week. Um, she reached out to me from, I guess you heard me on a podcast and you, uh, sent me an email and said, hey, I'd love to talk with you about things that I know. So I'm, I'm really excited to talk with you. I know she is at Aprende Middle School in Chandler, Arizona and she just finished her sixth year there, but her 13th year overall. So kind of fill us in, Marisa, on about your school and what you're doing there, a little bit about your program.
MARISA BRADY:
Sure. Thanks so much for having me. I'm honored and glad to chat with you. Um, so yeah, I work in Chandler, which is about 20 minutes south of Phoenix and Aprende Middle School is a sixth through eighth grade school and I am fortunate to be fulltime teaching theatre here. And then I created and run our after school drama program called the Jaguar Players. And you do two full productions a year. We do a play in the fall and then a musical in the spring and that's the long and short of it.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Good deal. What, what was your uh, what was your big show this year?
MARISA BRADY:
Uh, we did Once Upon a Mattress was our musical, which was really great. The kids loved it, you know, anything, anytime you give them traditional musical theatre they are like, this is awful. And then by the end like this is my favorite, so it was really, really great. And then in the fall we did, I Hate Shakespeare because I wanted to introduce Shakespeare to middle schoolers and this is a really silly, funny way to introduce it and the story without the language of it. So they really enjoyed that as well.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Wonderful. Well. Um, I know you also taught elementary drama before that as well. Correct.
MARISA BRADY:
Um, I taught elementary for seven years. I did fourth and fifth grade and I was just a gen ed teacher. I taught everything. But while I was in teaching fifth grade, I was working on my masters, um, in secondary ed theatre. So I was like Guinea pigging, my students with all of the things. I was like, how can I incorporate this and informally doing arts integration, not like the true arts integration way. I just would bring it to life as I would tell my students. And I through one of my practicums. I had to, I was supposed to be in an MFA program but couldn't do it because I was teaching full time. So I was like running tangent, like parallel to the MFA students. I worked with them, um, and but could do after school stuff and weekends. And as part of my practicum, I decided to, to start a drama club because you know, what else would a fulltime teacher working on a master's degree, do? You know, except start a whole program. So I did it with fourth and fifth graders and had all these wonderful grand ideas and it was going to be 2 productions and they had to be in the cast and the crew and the kids were going to do everything. And my principal at the time was like, your kids are going to do everything. How is, you know, it wasn't really super excited about it, but I convinced him and we did it and it was awesome. I did an abridged, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and they just loved it. I kind of just pulled the monologues and some of the songs and it was great. It was very beg, borrow and steal and let's use the carpeted stairs of the stage that we have and you know, not great. So I did that there and then it was this huge success and everyone was like, you have to continue doing it. So I continued doing it there and things happened at the school where I had to leave and they were like, the new school, they're like, are you going to do a drama club here? I was like, I, I don't know. And I didn't because the position at my current school, which is the feeder middle school to the two elementary schools I was at, um, my mentor teacher had moved to middle school and he was like the drama teacher is leaving, there's an open position. And I was like, it's not even posted yet. What do I do? So I got here and um, I interviewed with with DVDs of the productions that I put on. I was like, this is what I've done before because my school had a drama class. They had no drama program. They had never done any kind of main stage before. And I was like, I'm going to do it. I did it once. It can't be that much harder. That was not intelligent, but it's great. Um, but yeah, so what I found, to answer your question 45 minutes ago, I apologize, was at the elementary was really, really great foundation and a great way to kind of figure out drama cause it's truly drama with the younger kids. Whereas my class is theatre and I know, you know, there's a distinguished distinction between the two. But having that experience with the younger kids and doing dramatic play and process drama type things in social studies or math or whatever subject I was doing gave me a really good foundation for then focusing on theatre at the middle school.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Well I, talk to me a little bit about how um, when you went through your masters, how that, how that impacted your teaching. And when I did, when I did my masters, I did a MEd in theatre education at UNC Greensboro and we were able to almost kind of tailor our programs who kind of what we wanted to study. So I really focused my work on the technical theatre stuff that I didn't feel I was very strong in from Undergrad.
MARISA BRADY:
That's smart. That's real real smart. I wish I had done that.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
And then it, and then for me it really kind of solidified my love for, and kind of stepped up what I was doing already with my kids. So talk to me about how, how working on your masters impacted your work in your classroom?
MARISA BRADY:
Yeah. I'm, uh, I'm a notoriously stubborn, like I set my mind to something and then I'm going to be like, well, I'm going to figure out how to do it. And it's not always great, but you know, so I, um, we, I am about, 20 minutes, 30 minutes from Arizona State University and they have a very well known MFA in theatre for Youth Program. And in my Undergrad, my undergrad's in elementary Ed, I minored in theatre. So I kind of like took some of those classes. And because I grew up doing theatre, I started performing at 10 and you know, was a theatre dork throughout high school and knew I wanted to be a teacher so that hobby would just become a hobby. And then I was going to go back for my masters early on. I actually did it when I was in my third year teaching, which again was not very smart, just naive, you know, and I wanted, I really, really wanted to walk away the ability to teach theatre. So I was like, I want to do that, the MFA program. But it was full time and I couldn't afford to not work and do it. So I kind of forged my own path and they were like, the only way you can do this is if you have two advisors. You're in both the college of Ed and the theatre, the art school, and you're going to have to do two thesis or two final projects. And I was like, I'm going to do it, I don't care. So I managed to take all of the MFA classes and then I also had to take all my ed classes. But because I was already certified, I didn't have to go through certification route. So I didn't have to do student teaching. I didn't have to do that. But I was still taking all of the masters level Ed classes, reading articles and analyzing the state of education in our nation, you know, that kind of stuff. And I, it was great because that side of it was those who had students. So we would talk about it and then go try with our students. The theatre part didn't. So I took it upon myself to go like, okay, so total physical response. That's a really cool idea when you're incorporating things and that's theatre that's like we're going to create a pantomime or we're going to create some motion that's is going to personify a word or personify an idea that's theatre like as as I know it to be. So I was really able to take a lot of those ideas. Um, I got to work with like four year olds all the way through high schoolers during that as well. And that really gives you, makes you become an area at classroom management I'll say because of you know, how you give directions or the content that you can do. A lot of the MFA stuff was very theoretical in your perfect world situation when you have your theatre and we're going, the social change that's going to happen, which is awesome and I'm great. I'm grateful I took those classes. The reality of implementing that wasn't so much. So I just try and try to navigate and go, like, what is the important message that I can implement to the younger kids? Cause you know, they're not going to be on the street and break into a theatrical piece and on the playground. That wasn't going to happen. Um, but yeah,
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Well, tell me a little bit more about your students kind of running everything, the agency and ownership that you give them, with what you do with your kids.
MARISA BRADY:
I seriously contribute, that's the biggest thing to our success because I'm a big believer on setting the bar high because when you set it high, they will meet it. And it wasn't even, it was fourth graders running a sound booth and at not a complicated soundboard, just, you know, like turn on the microphone, turn it off. Uh, there was just, it's, it's, there's so much, so much ownership. We have stage managers as fourth and fifth graders and they were in charge backstage during the runs and we would put cameras backstage to see what they were doing during a set change behind the curtain and then go through and be like, well, you know, and have them do it. Here at the middle school it is the backbone. I don't honestly think we could do the productions without having the kids run it. I am so unbelievably, unbelievably lucky. I have three other teachers on staff who help. One is our technical director, one does costumes, hair make up. Um, she kind of trains are stage hands, helps with all of the scheduling type things. And then a friend of mine who we actually ran the program when we were both in elementary school. Uh, she's taken over the prop department and they, we hire managers, hire... Pick managers. We don't pay them and they truly run it all. They, a lot of times they're usually seventh or eighth graders and they take it very seriously. We have, we had the best sound and light department this musical where we had a manager and assistant manager and the manager was eighth grade and the assistant was six. And that those eighth graders, they were like, I'm not going to be here next year. You need to know how to do this. Let me, what's the next cue? Do you know what it is? Don't look at your script. You should know. I was like, Whoa, all right guys. They were like living it. And I was so proud of him. They did an amazing job like we and our seed manager was calling cues. We didn't have to worry about that at all. It the ownership is so important because it's your buy in. It makes the show better. It makes me better as a director because they don't settle for me, you know, just not giving it my all. It's just, it's so important and they just care. They care about it. That's why it's so important.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Well, I found with, with my students, because I was the same way, I would tell them every year, the first drama club meeting, this is your program. This is, this is not my program. I'm just, I'm here to guide you and I'm not going to work harder than you and, and it, but it worked. And they, and they do take pride in it. They do take ownership of it. And what would you tell teachers who who, who are a little bit like me who have a hard time letting go and letting their kids do that? What do you say them who say, but what if something goes wrong?
MARISA BRADY:
Right. I'm not that person. It makes it a lot easier. I have other theatre teachers in our district who are like, I can't let anything go. I want to do this, and I'm like, please everybody come do it on your own for me. The biggest thing is to remember the fact and this took me awhile to set in my brain that it is educational theatre and I grew up doing community theatre, doing theatre in school and that was the art of it and then I was an educator and until I put the two together and went, okay, the biggest way they're going to learn is if they try it and fail and the biggest way they're going to come up with a problem is if they figure it out. And my sixth graders have a really big in my class. My sixth graders have a huge problem transitioning with that because we do full productions at the end of our semesters and they do everything and they will come to me and they're like, it's not working. And I respond with, yeah, I see that. They're like, what do we do? And I'm like, I don't know. What are you going to do? And they're like, you don't know? I'm like, no, I know, but you don't know what are you going to do? And they just freak out. So I always have to have a conversation with them. Like I'm like, guys, I know you usually go to your teacher and you ask a question and they give you an answer and they're going to solve the problem. I'm like, that's not this. This is problem solving. You've got to figure it out. I'm not going to tell you. If I know it's not going to work, I'm going to let you fail. And they're like, what? Why you're the worst and Im like no, no, no, no. I'm, I'm not gonna let you embarrass yourself. I'm not going to let you embarrass our school, but how are you going to fix the problem? Because you know, kids nowadays with like instant gratification, I'm like, how do you solve it? And you know, they talk about 21st century skills, like there you go, that's it.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Well, I always loved when like, uh, like a cue was called late or light didn't come up when it was supposed to or they were two light cues behind or the sound cue was, uh, uh, a few seconds later than it should have been. And like my assistant directors or or other or parents even come up, it's like, hmm, wonder how are you going to fix that? And I'm like, I'm not going to do it. They'll fix it tomorrow. They learned their lesson tonight. It's, that's part of the process. And I think, I think that's something that we've heard over pretty much all the episodes that I've, I've had with my podcast is that it's really, you've got to focus on the process and the end product is important and it's well and good, but what are they getting out of the journey to get there?
MARISA BRADY:
Exactly. And that was, that was like the whole thing of our masters. And I remember being like, oh, that's so artsy fartsy what does that even mean when you're in college? And you're like, I know more than the people in the field. Hahaha no you don't. They're experts for a reason. So any college student listening, we know what we're talking about. All right. No, I'm kidding. Um, but it's, it's true. And my favorite moments are when they miss the sound cue and look over to me and they're like, I am so sorry, I'm like, no, I, you'll fix it. I know. Or like they don't get the notes that it was wrong. They're like, you didn't give me the note that it was wrong. Like you already know it's wrong. You're going to fix it. Like, great. That's why we rehearse.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I want to talk a little bit about, um, your, your work with the middle schoolers and something that when you emailed me, um, that was almost identical to what, um, Brian Daniel, who's my guest on this week's episode I talked about was the, the under appreciation of underrepresentation of the work with the middle schoolers and what you're wanting to do to really legitimize that.
MARISA BRADY:
Yeah. Thank you for asking that. I'm like, this is me on my soapbox. So here we go. No, it's so I, uh, my district is awesome and we have full time theatre teachers at almost every single one of our middle schools and it's rare. It's very, very rare. Um, and I in my brain was like, I'm going to do middle school for a couple years so I can get my secondary ed cert and move to high school. You could not pay me enough money to move to high school at this point. Like shout out to those amazing high school teachers who spent, it's so much harder. Your programs are so much more complicated. I can't even imagine it. So, um,
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Well, just so you know, those of us in high school, we're thinking the same thing about you in middle school.
MARISA BRADY:
Lovely. It's great. See we're making, we're raising each other up. Um, but it's so important. I didn't, I had productions in my middle school but not a class. And Middle School theatre is very much, especially to our core teachers, like they're just playing games and playing and having fun. And um, I've worked so hard to get my class to be called theatre and not drama and now I'm on the mission to get it spelled r e and not e r because, no, it's not, you know, the, the British way of saying it and like the kids, my students are very proud of that. They know the difference and like we're studying the art of it and all of that ideas. I just think that it's so, so, so beneficial to kids that are stuck in the middle of middle school. And we just finished the school year and the best gifts and had me in tears was the notes that I got from students that um, one that was just like, your class was the, the light, the, the ray of sunshine in the crap year that I had at home. And I'm just like, (crying sound) but it's so like, it's such an awkward, awful age. And I tell my student inside, I'm like, guys, this is the worst. You're in the worst years of your life. And they're trying to figure out who they are and they're trying to figure out everything around them. And what better way to do that is to find, as I call the island of misfit toys, you know, we're not, they're not like the cliques start happening and they're not in them. And I'm like, wait we're strange and like to dress up and play, come play with us. And it's just a lot of acceptance and seeing things from other people's point of view. Whenever we do character analysis, it's like, what is your character thinking and what does that mean? And as a person, like looking at somebody else's point of view of other things, but it's just very underappreciated because it's just an elective and it doesn't really matter. But it's been so many of my students lifelines to get through middle school and we had some really real life issues happen with some of our kids this year, uh, at home life or just going through bouts of anxiety, depression, uh, we had a kid on suicide watch this year and the entire cast and crew just hugged and embraced all of those problems and they literally have like a family tree. They're like, oh, he's my mom and it's stopping me as I'm like, oh, okay, great. But it was just this like they felt safe, they felt like they belonged and it's so hard when you are 12 and 13 and 14 and there's nothing there for those kids typically in the middle school. So I just hope districts appreciate it and see that it's not just playing games and being silly and wearing costumes, but like it really, you know, helps kids have a self of sense, sense of self. Um, to get them through it.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
How do you create that space where they feel that safety, feeling of ensemble with each other?
MARISA BRADY:
I don't know. I wish I knew. I don't know. And I'm like, I really try to figure out like what's the secret recipe. I, I think the biggest thing is respect to be honest. Like I have, I "demand" finger quotes, demand their respect, but it's a mutual respect. I think the fact that I let them do things and like one of my classroom rules is take risks and I'm like, this is the only class in the entire school that your rule is to take a risk. Most of the teachers want you to not take the risk and just follow what they're doing. I think because of that, I think because I am, we are, I have a performance space room where we can run around and play and they're crawling on the floor and I'm like, you'll be an animal at some point. You'll jump on a chair at another point. I think the nature of that is just kind of community forming. In my class we do a whole lot of community building type things like we do like warm up games that are usually tied into the unit that we're studying. But they don't realize that. With our afterschool club it's, there's just, I think everybody really cares about putting on a good show. I think that's what's super important. Uh, the biggest insult I give during notes is I'm like, all right guys, it's like, it's like a good middle school show right now. And they're like, oh, what?!?! We will not just be a good, we, we will be better than high school, that's their marker of where they can be. But I think it's just respect. I think it's giving them ownership. I think it's listening to them and realizing, I think me acknowledging like your life sucks right now because adults at this age are like eh, you don't even know what it, it's not, it's going to get worse. But all they want to hear is like, Yep, this sucks. And I got to get through it. I think just humanizing, like I make mistakes. I think that's important to show kids, but I don't, I wish I had like the special recipe. I don't know.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I appreciate what you do at the middle school level very much.
MARISA BRADY:
Thank you.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I, I, most of my career, my whole career has been in the high school until just recently when I came to the university. Um, I, I, for the last 10 years, I worked at a middle school gifted and talented program in the summer that our district and surrounding districts put together. And I love those three weeks. I love that time with those middle school kids and yeah.
MARISA BRADY:
They're so, weird. They're so wonderfully weird.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
They're weird. And, and they're, everything and awkward. Um, but they're, they're so hungry and they have such an energy. And it w it wore me out by the end of the three weeks. I was, it was ready for the summer vacation for sure. But, um, it was great. And I appreciate what you do. Um, because I know at the high school level I was dependent on the work that my middle school feeders did. Um, and I could tell when I had kids come through, I could tell which program they were from. I knew, I knew this group. They are really strong with musical theatre cause they're, that's what they're school did. This school, they really focused on, on, on one acts and drama. So when they're here they're who I'm going to lean to with my, my meatier acting pieces. Um, but so thank you.
MARISA BRADY:
Yeah, no and I love, I love the high school. I love the high school, like I said, and we go, like our team goes to a lot of the high school shows and we like open up the playbill like, oh, that one was our, that's our kid, we're so happy they're still doing it. And like we had a big graduating, the graduating class that just graduated last night was what we consider like our first generation. They were seventh graders when I came in and started the program and they're just like still doing it. A bunch of them are going to study theatre at different schools or film. And I was like, guys I just wanted you to be silly and have fun, but it's awesome.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Well, and they remember you because my kids, they talked about, Oh, Miss Yon, this Ms. Yon that, like she is fantastic. So thank you for what you do. You're like you said, you said that your district, um, pretty much all your middle schools have a theatre, a theatre program. Um, and you, in your email that you sent to me, you said that you all have a really strong, um, PLC, I had the worst experience with PLCs. I know what they are, those professional learning communities. So please tell me about yours and I want to hear about the one that works and what's good.
MARISA BRADY:
Sure. Coming from elementary, it's all about team planning. Every, when I was on fifth grade, our fifth grade team planned so much, we would switch students. It was very, it was a very team aspect. And then I got over to middle school and I was the only theatre teacher at the school and felt really lonely. And I was like, all right, I got to create a curriculum and finish all of that. Um, but our districts, you know how districts like to catch on to something new and they're like, we're going to do that hardcore. So PLCs in my district have been really big the past couple of years. And uh, we had once a month about once a month, like an entire day to do a PLC with the other theatre teachers. And thankfully the other theatre teachers in my district are awesome and friends and we are texting funny memes and encouraging each other and doing great things there, which is great and very, very collaborative. So what we've done, um, most of the time is just like the beginning. It's like a catch up and then how did this production go and all that kind of stuff. Um, we only have two sound systems in the school district that we share and they travel. So they're in real great condition. Cause sound systems are built to travel to different, no they're awful. So there's a lot of coordination between there. And what we have done is each time had somebody share our units that they do because we're not working, we don't have um, a curriculum map or any district aside from the state standards we go off of, which is based on the national standards. We don't have anything specific, you know, like math follows that way. So we kind of early on a couple of years ago when, all right, we have a nine week semester class now nine, 18 week semester class, we should cover nine units. But then how we do each unit is really different. And with all theatre teachers, you go with what your strength is, you know, like, uh, one of ours in her, uh, I think her undergrad just loved theatre history and commedia Dell'arte and she had these, she has this beautiful unit with, they make masks and it's awesome. And I'm like, that's beautiful and wonderful. I don't know if I could do that, but at least I can take this resource that she uses or this idea, um, and kind of incorporate it through my theatre history unit. So we each share each week or we kind of hosts It kind of not, I'm sorry, each month we'll share a unit and the resources and things that have worked. And um, that's been really, really nice and helpful because not only are you getting awesome resources, but it makes you think like, how do I, how do I do what I do? And like how would I explain that to another teacher? Kind of like having a student teacher. Like, what is, it makes you think about your teaching and what you are doing. And then we sometimes like, all right, I'm gonna treat you like my students and we're going to go through here and do it that way. So it's a really good, and it's unfortunately the only professional development that we get because PD in theatre, if you're not going to the conferences or anything along those lines, um, or listening to your podcast, you have to seek it out. And it's kind of hard. So that's been really, really great. And we don't do, our district wants us to do like take an assessment, review the assessment, figure out where the weakness was and reteach, which is very, very PLC-ey. But we were like, okay, stage directions, what are we going to paper and pencil are kids on? And then the other problem was alright, we'll do this, we'll do improv. Okay everyone do Improv we'll have a same rubric that we're looking for these specific skills. But by the time we would get back a month or two later, we're no longer in our improv unit. So we just, you know, square peg into the round hole. We don't fit into a lot of that. So that's why us as a PLC went, all right, we're, we to actually benefit from this time. Um, or it's a lot of just like questions like, um, I started, uh, booster club so the other one was like, how did you do that? Like, what are the steps that you're doing? Or like, we have this great fundraiser and what are you doing? How to, you know, navigate that type. It's just, it's, it's good to talk to people who are in the same boat.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Yeah. It sounds like your district give me the time to be able to do that too.
MARISA BRADY:
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
My experience with it is we, we have these delayed start days once a month where we had, you know, the kids would come in two hours late, but that two hours, we still came in at the regular time and we would meet with our departments. English department had their PLC, the math department had theirs. I'm the theatre department. So, and I would get, I would get in trouble by my administration for being in my room alone. I'm like, what? What do you want me to do? And I said, I would love to go across town to meet with my other two high school theatre teachers. And they're like, oh, but we don't have time for that. I'm like, what do you want me to do?
MARISA BRADY:
We have our performing arts PLC. We, I mean we as a performing arts team take our students to California and we do the Disneyland Performing Arts and see a musical and downtown LA. So we will like just logistical PLC times. But when it's like site PLC, we're like, all right guys, you wanna go to lunch. Like what do you, I don't like, cool. But they did, because our core teachers had two prep periods this year. We only had one. So one of their prep periods with PLC. So then we would have days where we didn't have students and we would just meet as a, as a district PLC instead.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I through digging through your, your class website, I saw that you have an amazing parent booster group.
MARISA BRADY:
Oh my gosh. They're the best.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Talk to me about working with parents and, and forming the booster club.
MARISA BRADY:
Yeah. So, okay. So our, like most districts have very strict policies when it comes to money and who can touch it and how you spend it and the po's and all of the things. When I was in the elementary school, I went through that system and it drove me crazy. So when I got to the high school, I was like, there's gotta, we gotta be able to do a booster club. So, um, uh, my biggest resource was my father who is an attorney and I was like, okay, what do I need to do? And he also was on a board of trustees for a theatre company growing up. So he like knows the inner workings and performs, we're all one big theatre family. It's adorable. Anyway, so he was like, okay, you've got to incorporate and like, what?, this sounds. He's like, no, you have to become a company. And then if you file for not for profit status, then you, that's where you want to be. You'll be able to fund raise, you'll be able to spend how you want to spend. I was like, all right, so it's a very long process. It is. Uh, we incorporated, which was easy. And then I took, we had to apply the IRS. So what happened was like, I just am not afraid to ask people for help. And if they say no, then they say no, but really, how did you do that? I'm like, I literally just asked. So I was at first one of the meetings for parent meeting and I went, we're going to form a booster club if anybody is interested or any has knowledge. And one parent, she loves to tell this, that I had a sheet and was like, are you interested in boosters? And she wrote no. Well she turned out to be the president of our booster club for three years. And she's like, remember that time I wrote no? I was like, I don't remember that. I always remember you agreeing to this. Um, and she, she, because we had built nights or tech director would just like parents and kids come and build because we can't build with students because it's against district policy to let them use any tools because we're an elementary district. So she was there and we would just talk and she's like, oh, I, you know, I do stuff with Habitat for Humanity and we're like, great. And then I was like, hey, so you know how you're helping. I just, if you could just like sign this paper to say you're the president, like it doesn't really mean anything. I just need some parents to sign it. She's like, all right, if it doesn't mean anything, but no, she took it seriously. And then because I knew so many of the families from the elementary schools, cause I worked at the theatre schools, I had a parent who used to volunteer when I taught her daughter in fourth grade. And I was like, I know you used to be an accountant. Like can you be our unofficial treasurer and just have help us with this. And she knew paperwork stuff. So they signed on and for the first pretty much two years it was like the three of us trying to figure out what we were doing. Um, but getting that status, the 501 (c)3 not for profit status is huge because then you can take donations. Then you can ask people to give you things and then you can give them your tax id number and they can write it off. And it opened the doors for us to get like a bank account and a debit card so that when we buy stuff on Amazon, we have our card there. And all of that's there. It's two years ago, we had this huge boom of parents who were, I think we kind of justified ourselves to the community and they wanted to help. And we had the website that you saw, those were just two parents who were engineers and they're like, we're going to do it with our tech director. He's a tech guy too. And they just put all that together. And I was like, it'd be great if they could buy tickets online. Now we're selling our tickets online. It would be so great if we had the information, if we had a green room area where we could put a Google calendar for our kids so that they know what our rehearsals schedule is. That's up there. It would be so great if we could do like a password protected area so we could put rehearsal videos cause you know like for rights purposes you can't put it out. But if it's password protected, we're filming the choreography and then they can go back and practice it on their own. And just all of these like wouldn't it be great? And they kind of put it all together. So now we have committees and chairs and elections and it's like official. Um, and parents get really scared cause we're like call to order. We need the minutes, and we're like, no, it's fine. We're, we're just talking about these different things. But yeah, I biggest advice just ask, the worst they can say is no.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Yes, that's my experience too. Yeah. We had a booster club and, and thankfully my principal, um, at the school I left, um, he, he pulled together the drum of boosters, the coral boosters and then the academic boosters. And he said, I will pay for getting your nonprofit status. I will help you organize that. I will, you all just have to take care of paying the, the, um, a third of the accountant's fees each year. And then it was my job to maintain the parents and keep that board going. And it, you just have to ask, you just have to ask them.
MARISA BRADY:
Ask and recruit. Cause when we have years with eighth grade parents, I'm like, find a sixth grade parent buddy and start talking to them about what you can do. Um, and it's really great too because our shows, you know, I don't have, I don't have a theatre. I would love one. I have a, a cafetorium, a multipurpose room and we put so much in like our quote lobby, it's just the entrance between the gym and the MPR and we just, they sell so many things and come up with these great ideas. They're like, how do you do that? I'm like, we, they the parents brainstorm this like we do popcorn, but now we just souvenir cups with our, we create the logo for our show and then it's, you know, free refills and we do break a leg posters. It has the kid's face on it. You can buy a little shout out and posted on that. You know, just like ways to get money. We do raffles. We get donations from local businesses and so much of that was their ideas. Like they, they're, you know, they're just so creative and smart. Just all right, let's, let's try it.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
You, you also do student travel.
MARISA BRADY:
Yes.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
And that was one of them. One of my favorite parts of my programs that I had and student travel was so important for my kids and, and the continued growth of my program. Um, talk to me about what, cause I know you do New York every other year, so talk to me a little bit about the experience with that and then how that impacts your program.
MARISA BRADY:
Um, so yeah, we could do on your trip every other year and we only allow seventh and eighth graders to go because sixth graders would be yelling a bit much. Uh, also it gives them something to look forward to because the sixth graders when they go, they're like, oh, when we're in eighth grade, we'll get to go. And we went last year. So we're in between years right now. And I actually just work with a tour company. I know some people have different opinions about that. Um, but I use EF tour, EF America. And the first year, uh, we went, I was unable to go because I was eight months pregnant at the time that we were going to fly. And I asked my doctor if I could fly it. He wouldn't let me, so my teammates went instead. And then this past year was, I actually, I was pregnant again, which was funny, but I was not super pregnant. I was able to go, which was nice. But we, they, we do a lot of buildup to it. So actually we have two kids enrolled right now for our 2020 trip. They've already started. And then they're talking about ways to fundraise. I usually get a parent to kind of head up that committee and um, help with fundraising ideas. Cause some parents, some years parents are like, yeah, let's do all of the fundraisers. And others are like, no, we're good. I'm like, oh, that must be nice. But we, when we go with the kids, it's seriously, first of all. So I'm a little bit jaded because I grew up in New Jersey. I grew up an hour outside of New York. So I would go into the city like every weekend. But to see them see New York for the first time is the most amazing thing ever. Um, especially theatre kids cause they geek out at the stuff that I geek out. They're like, oh, there's such a luxury. That's cool. What they like Hamilton's grave. Are we going to go see where Hamilton was buried? I was like, yes, we are like, that's of course what they care about. Um, the other thing that's the most amazing thing is seeing the Broadway shows, but stage dooring, cause the concept of the fact that you can wait after and then meet them because these are celebrities in their brains and they just sat and chatted with them and took selfies and signed autographs and answered their questions. And one parent was like, are you just gonna go home now? I'm like, yeah, their job's over there just like, there's going to walk down the street. I'm like, this is New York. They're not really famous. It's fine. Um, but they just, you know, it's celebrities and it was amazing. And the fact that the Broadway theatre houses are so much smaller than, we have a great touring facility here and it's huge, but they're like, this is, this is a lot smaller than I thought it was. But all of those things, it's just really great to see them. We, there's always some kind of issue with drama and rooming situations that is bound to happen with middle schoolers, but they step up so much, um, and we get to have these different workshops they get to do and I'm always so proud of them because we bring tech kids, we bring actors and we make everybody do everything. So they get pushed and they'll do it. And they're always super, super respectful and very attentive. Um, a friend of mine is, a casting director. He doesn't, he does mostly TV stuff now, but um, he was gracious enough to like get a room for us. And we talked about the casting process and what he looks for in actors. And they were just asking all of these wonderful questions and really caring about it. Even if they didn't want to be, follow in as this career path, it was just like they were very much involved. It can be super scary, especially because we have to fly. And that can be like, there's a lot there, but it's definitely worth it because I cannot recreate anything like that in my classroom. And that's why when I originally thought of the idea, I was like, there's no other experience that they can have besides this. So again, I was like, could we do it? We're going to do it.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
For me, it was the, when we, the excitement when we came back.
MARISA BRADY:
Oh, okay.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
And I mean, again, seeing their faces see it the first time and meeting the celebrities in their lives. I, that's very cool. But when we got back and seeing their excitement for the craft and what we were doing and they wanted to take what we were doing and elevate it.
MARISA BRADY:
MMM. See so we go at the end of the year, we go Memorial Day weekend. So we go outside of the school year. So I don't, we don't have to go through the district, it's not technically associated with it. So our seventh graders who then become eighth graders are very much like that. Or they'll be like, remember that time in New York we're like, well we saw it on Broadway. I'm like, all right guys. But we don't get to see them immediately after because some of them go to high school. Well they all go to high school.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Yeah. I, I had, um, I went, I went to New York a couple months ago for my honeymoon and while I was there, um, one of my former students is, is living up there and he's working as a, as an actor. And we met for dinner and he said, I just, he said, do you even realize that you brought me here for the first time? And now I'm here doing this? And I'm like, oh, all of the tears. All of them.
MARISA BRADY:
Yeah, because New York is like the end all be all. And we get to go to Lincoln Center and all these other things. I'm like, I think a lot of it, she was like, I just geek out. I was like, oh my God. Did you know that on the stage? They're like, stop it. I'm sorry. I went to the UK for my honeymoon and when we were in London, my husband was like, you're going to get us kicked out of the globe. Just, I just wanna let you know that during this time period, he's like, stop it. Let the tour, I'm like, okay, I'm sorry. I'll just sit quietly.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
A couple of years ago I took a, I took a group of my IB students, uh, for the IB workshop that was in New York. And um, one of the shows that I bought us tickets for was to see The Real Thing and it had Ewan Mcgregor in it at the time. And I, I adore Ewan Mcgregor. I just want to be Ewan Macgregor. And uh, we, we staged doored and the kids like pushed me to the front because they wanted to make sure I met him. And it was just, it was so funny to watch them watching me geek out about this and, and they just thought it was the coolest thing that I got to meet one of my icons.
MARISA BRADY:
That's awesome. Well, we also, so my, uh, my, my department the Performing Arts, we go to California and that actually, um, I walked into this trip the band's done it for like 17 years and our band teacher like has it organized so it's a well oiled machine. So having that, I just went and having that experience, I was like, all right, let's take what we do for this to travel to New York. Uh, but the same thing happens when we go because we do, we go to one of the national tours at the Pantages and we had a parent the first year we saw Aladdin, and I had a parent who was like, I have never seen a play before. And I was like, I'm sorry. What? Like, I've never seen anything like that. That was amazing. And I'm like, well now we have to do this every year. It's a great experience.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I know you, you have your hands very full right now because I know you just had your second baby back in the fall. So tell me how you balance your time between mom and work and uh, um, how you take care of yourself.
MARISA BRADY:
Uh, I don't do a good job at it. Mom guilt is real. It's I this, so this is going to sound so cheesy. I just have like an amazing husband who lets me play and knows that I really care about this. Um, and he's awesome like that, but he is, it's definitely a different balance. My end time for rehearsals became hard end times where other times it was just, that's fine or I would've jumped to do things and now it's kind of like, well I don't necessarily know. Like I felt bad. We had our like eighth grade dance and they were the kids were like, are you coming to it? I was like, I can't, I already had two late nights this week and I can't, you know, do all of those things. But what I tell myself, I'm not the best person for this, but like is that like, it's okay. It's okay that you may miss bath night one night, but it's okay to have to cancel rehearsal because we have to go to the doctor's appointment. You know, like there's a lot of just being okay with that balance. And it's hard when you, I mean, I started when I was doing my masters, that was pre kids that was pre husband, so I was there till eight, nine o'clock at night and not need to worry about it. But, um, again, it's, I think it's the support my teammates know, what am I, the my friend who does our crops, our kids are the same age too, so she's like, I gotta go pick up the kids. I was like, oh, I should probably go to now. It's a good job keeping in check. Um, but they all know and are very supportive of it. My students love when I have to bring the girls to rehearsal. I have lots of babysitters if that happens, but I just like, I just have to keep telling myself that's, it's okay. It's okay to leave early. It's okay to cancel. It's okay to be late because it has to be.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Yeah. What is, uh, what's one of your favorites? I'm your favorite stories. Funny Story. Horror Story. It must meaningful moments, um, that you can, you can share with us.
MARISA BRADY:
Oh, there's so many. Okay. So I have like my classroom ones and my drama club. My classroom moments I love, my students are either like the hardcore theatre kids or the kids who they just like theatre. It's their favorite elective to take and there's a difference between them. And my favorite moments are when the, the non theatre kids have a super theatre kiddy moment. And it was last year I had a student who was in my advanced full year class and she was very into like punk rock or like early nineties rock, grunge type music. Like that was, she was really into that and she came up to me one day and was like, have you seen dear Evan Hansen? And I, because like they think I've seen every show ever. And at that point I had not, I was like, no. She says, I've been listening to the soundtrack. It's like really good. I'm like, that's awesome. Like, what's, do you have a favorite song? Which was like, I just love Ben Platt's voice. And in my head I'm like, oh my gosh, she knows the name of the actor who plays it. That's crazy. And I just Waving Through a Window is great. Oh, and then I, you know what, I just really love all of them and I was like, that's awesome. Like I'm super excited to see it, I hope you can see it when it comes through. Um, and in my brain I was like, that was like a non theatre kid just geeking out about the OBC of Dear Evan Hansen. I was no, that was like Yay moment. Um, that's great. My drama club. Oh my gosh, there are so many. But again, another type theme type thing that happened was we were doing Bye Bye Birdie and I had a student, he was an eighth grade and he was kind of like, I think I, maybe you should try out. I was like, you absolutely should. You're a boy and you're awesome and talented and come and do our musical. And he actually not cast as the understudy for Albert. We understood your principles and then we do an understudy show so they get the chance to perform. And I didn't hear this, my tech director was back there, but he like came off stage after the first number and he was like, I effing love theatre. The art Teacher was standing right behind him. Everyone was like turn around turn around, and he's like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. And he's like, you just got bit. He's like, what? He's like you just got the theatre bug and he just graduated and he's going to school for film now. So we're very excited for him. But that, those moments of like when the theatre, non theatre kid becomes the theatre kid is the best thing ever. Or just I, I actually have a quote board that my students made me because of the things that come out of my mouth are strange, you know, you say things that like no other teacher in the school. Um, and I repeat myself a lot, so I just start the phrase and then my cast can finish it at that point. But a lot of really weird and funny things come out of there. Um, and then all the inside jokes. We love to put Easter eggs in our sheriffs. We just did Once Upon a Mattress and a, when we, they pull the things at the finale that were hidden in the mattress, there were all a prop from all the other musicals we've done. Cause we had a, our joke at our department is, um, it's a where's the shoe moment, so when something goes wrong we call it a where's this shoe moment. And it was our under study show of Cinderella. Someone forgot to set the shoe on the stage when she runs out and the prince goes to the stairs to get the shoe, they forgot to set it there. So our prince runs off stage with the hot mic and goes, where's the shoe? For the entire audience to hear. And so that means that anytime you make mistake, it's the where's and shoe moment or they try to throw in the phrase, where's the shoe in every single show. And then we went, I teach eighth graders to see, um, our high school invites us over for the eighth grade to go see a show. And he just graduated the kid, the where's the shoe kid and they're like, any questions that our talk back after anything in high school, anything about the show. So one of my drama kids raised seems like, um, are you the where's the shoe person? And the kid's like, you've gotta be kidding me. And I'm like, no dude, that is a badge of honor. They are, you are a celebrity. You're the guy who said, where's the shoe? So, you know, fun, silly things like that.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I had a kid played Mr Mushnik when we did Little Shop of Horrors and I always warn them, I was like, you have to pretend, you have to keep in your mind that your mic may always be on. And uh, I said, cause you know, if they're working eight or nine different mics, the finger may not get to yours right away. So you have to be always on. And he messed up in his song and he walked off stage and he dropped the F bomb. It went all through the auditorium. And so from then on we have, we've always said, do not pull a Shivam. You have to assume that your mic is on. And even when I'm gone, they're still saying that don't pull a Shivam. So that's very cool.
MARISA BRADY:
Yeah. And then we had someone the best was like, ah, who farted over a mic or like, you know, fart jokes are always funny.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Always. Always. So Marisa, what is a resource that you use that we all need to know about?
MARISA BRADY:
The biggest one is a Drama Teacher Academy. I know people on the podcast, I've talked about that in the Facebook group, which is really, really great, especially if you don't have a curriculum. There's so much there. Um, I've given them some of, some of my stuff too. It's really nice there. Um, but when I stumbled upon is the American Theatre Wing has videos that they have a youtube channel and they have jobs in the theatre videos, which I did not know about. I was trying to figure out, I don't like and I don't have a theatre and it's hard to teach a tech theatre unit when you don't, you can't use construction or have a theatre or lights or anything. So I came across those videos and it's, they're really, really great. They talk about how they got to the job, that they're in, they have like lighting designers and set designers. It's, and like the lighting designer Hamilton is one of them and Aladdin. So they're like, some are a little, you know, downtown obscure musicals that a lot of people don't know, but I'm going to have the big names, the kids kind of hook into it. It's also really good sub plan if you ever need that. Cause I've just created you know, a worksheet to go along with it. But it's really good because you can see theatres and New York theatres and professionals, especially some things that even they didn't know. They didn't know where jobs, like somebody talks about adapting scripts and projections, a projectionist, things like that. But that, I stumbled upon that and I immediately emailed my theatre teachers. I was like, guys, this is great. If you need to bookmark this page.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
My final question for you is what are your parting words of wisdom for new teachers coming into this field?
MARISA BRADY:
So what I tell them is this, no matter what you put on the stage, the parents will love it, your kid and can be tree your kid could sit there and do nothing but parents are going to love it. And that one, once I realized that it opened up my, a lot of stress and um, and a lot of other things because I was an artist and thought that what was on the stage was a reflection of my art. And it's educational theatre. It's not a reflection of my art. You know, like I knew that as a, as an educator, you know that like the tests don't tell you everything, but kids scores this because of 45,000 other factors that are happening. It doesn't tell you necessarily what they know. And I knew that, but didn't apply it to the arts and realize that if they mess up the lines, if it's not the best, if that blocking in that scene did not work or that was the wrong delivery of that line, that's not me personally being an awful artist. That's as you said, the journey. And again, just seeing their kids up there running a spotlight or on a headset, like the parents love to take pictures of their kids wearing our headsets. They are going to love it and the kids are going to get some amazing experience out of it. So that's what I find yourself.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Well, and it's also, it's not a negative reflection of you as an educator either.
MARISA BRADY:
True. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
And I can tell you your kids are very lucky and amazing energy and I've loved talking with you.
MARISA BRADY:
So fun. Thanks for having me. I enjoyed it.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Thank you for reaching out. Um, if you know, anyone else, please send them my way. But I really appreciate you chatting with me and I appreciate what you do with your kids and I really hope you have an amazing restful summer.
MARISA BRADY:
Well, I got a summer job. I got to work first and then you know,
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Well I'm just going to pretend that it's going to be amazing and restful. Marisa, thank you so much. I appreciate you. This has been another really fun interview for me interviewing Marissa Brady this week. I know she was on her teacher workday after all her students were gone and uh, so I appreciate her taking time out to talk with me. Thank you so much for listening. Uh, I want to make sure you know to check out our website, www.thedtalks.com where you can check out all of our show transcripts as well as the archives of all our episodes so far, as well as those resources that all the teachers have talked about on their episodes. You can subscribe to THED Talks on Apple Podcasts on iTunes, Google Podcast on Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, Anypod. Tunein and you can find us on Youtube as well. Go on there. Subscribe, give us the stars by rating us and give us a review. Also share the podcast with any of those theatre teachers or theatre students that you think could benefit from what I'm doing here on the show. You can always reach out to me at thedtalkspodcast@gmail.com if you want to give me any feedback, make suggestions for the show or uh, suggest a, a guest to be on the show for next season. You can find us on all your social media, on Twitter @theatreedtalks, on Tumblr with thedtalks.tumblr.com. You can find us on Facebook at THED Talks, on Instagram @thedtalkspodcast, and of course our website with www.thedtalks.com. I want to thank Joel Hamlin and Joshua Shusterman for the use of your song, Magnetize. Thank you for taking the time to listen. Please sell some other people about us. We, we, we love seeing the listenership grow each week. So thank you for what you are doing. Keep doing it. I hope you have a wonderful week. And if you've already started your summer break, enjoy that time out in the sun by the pool or traveling or just sitting in your bed reading, whatever, whatever makes you happiest right now. Enjoy that time and uh, get that rest this the summer for those students coming back in August. We do have a couple of episodes left. There are a couple of special ones that I have, I have been working on. The first one is a special Tony Awards edition that will be released the week of the Tony Awards. So you do not want to miss that episode. The very special guests that will be joining me on that episode. And then also after that is a special episode for pride season coming up. So for all your LGBT students as well as those of you teachers out there who might be LGBT, It's a pride episode for you and how we can continue to show representation and, uh, incorporate diversity into our classrooms. Thank you so much for joining us this week. I hope you have a wonderful week.
