1.11 A Conversation with Corey Mitchell
In this episode Jimmy talks to the inaugural Tony Award for Excellence in Theatre Education winner Corey Mitchell. Corey shares his stories, experiences, and words of hope for theatre educators and the profession as a whole!
Corey’s Recommended Resources:
Stage Write App: https://www.stagewritesoftware.com/
JIMMY CHRISMON:
You're listening to episode 11 of THED Talks with Jimmy Chrismon. THED Talks is a podcast for theater teachers and theater education students. Hi, I'm Doctor Jimmy Chrismon, theater education professor at Illinois State University. Each week I want to bring you stories and interviews from experienced K12 theater teachers, current theater education majors and professors in theater education that will warm your heart, renew your faith in teaching and provide resources to better your practice in your theater classroom.
JUDITH LIGHT:
Such a good boyfriend. As a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, I am so proud to support my alma mater and serve as one of the judges for the excellence in theater education award. As Peter shared, the quality of the entries exceeded all expectations. They came from nearly every state in the country, from cities and towns far and wide, and they had one thing in common. Each teacher had changed the lives of their students in remarkable and momentous ways. You just saw finalists, Maryanne Adams from the Grand Street Theater School in Helena, Montana, and Donald Hicken from the Baltimore School for the Arts in Baltimore, Maryland. Now it is my great pleasure and honor to introduce a history maker, the first ever winner of the excellence in theater education award presented by Carnegie Mellon University and the Tony Awards from Charlotte, North Carolina's Northwest School of the arts teacher, Corey Mitchell.
COREY MITCHELL:
Thank you all. I don't accept this just for me. I accept this on the behalf of every theater teacher and every young student out there who aspires to this stage and to Broadway. I am overwhelmed and so appreciative. Thank you to Carnegie Mellon University. Thank you to the Broadway League and thank you to the American Theater Wing. You have been extraordinary and I appreciate it. I could not do this without thAnking my own teachers, Debbie Miller, Terry Rogers, and my hero, Mr. Lou Criscola. And finally I have to say this, thank you for legitimizing us. Theatre Education matters and art matters and we thank you. Goodnight.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Welcome to THED Talks this week. This is a very special episode that I have for you leading up to the Tony Awards this Sunday. I am excited to welcome my guest, the very first Tony Award for Excellence in Theater Education Award w,inner Corey Mitchell to the episode this week. I am excited for you to hear my conversation with him. It was funny, it was inspiring and I hope it's just what you need as we move into the summer. As you relax and prepare for next school year. This is the fifth year that they will be giving me the award away and Corey was the first winner in 2015. I've had the distinct privilege and honor of knowing Corey for many, many years since my very first years of teaching in Charlotte. And he and I were colleagues in the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools and I've been able to witness all the amazing things he's done with his students there and the amazing staff there at Northwest School of the Arts. Um, so I, the night that this award was given away, I was sitting at home and I watched, uh, the Tony's that night and I just felt such immense pride for not only my friend Corey, but for our profession as a whole. I think it's truly amazing that Carnegie Mellon, the American Theater Wing and the Broadway League have all seen fit to recognize the hard work of all of our theater educators by giving this award out. So I'm not gonna talk anymore, I'm not going to hold this up. Please enjoy my conversation with Tony Award winning theater educator, Corey Mitchell. Well, I am extremely excited to talk to a friend and colleague for a very long time and I can, as of four years ago, I believe I can now say, Tony Winner, Corey Mitchell, he teaches at Northwest School of the Arts in Charlotte, North Carolina. Um, and he was the inaugural 2015 Tony Award for Excellence in Theater Education winners. So Corey, welcome to THED Talks. Tell me a little bit about where you are and what you're doing at Northwest and kind of how things go there and kind of what led you to where you are now.
COREY MITCHELL:
I teach at Northwest School of the Arts. This is my coming into the end of my 18th year here. Prior to teaching in Charlotte, I lived and taught in Wilmington. But oddly enough, I started my career, my teaching career, teaching English. And when I went to college I always, I went there on a Teaching Fellows Scholarship and the intent was always to be a theater ed major. I don't know a whole lot of people who, when they graduate from high school at the ripe old age to 17 it says, hey, I'm going to teach theater. But that's kind of, that's literally what happened. I was under the influence of my high school theater teacher. Her name was Debbie Miller, and she was just an amazing, amazing person and helped to inform so many of the things that I made as my life decision. And luckily I was hired into CMS at to teach at Northwest. So the things that I teach there are musical theater and we actually have four levels on the high school level of, uh, teaching musical theater, one, two, three and four, or as I call it, beginning, intermediate, proficient and advanced. And when we do that, we teach dance, we teach music, and I teach acting through that class and all of that through the lens of musical theater. And in addition, I teach one seventh grade class and I'll explain that in a second. And directing for the stage as well as an acting three class or proficient that I use Uta Hagen and 20th and 21st century American playwrights as the centerpiece for that class. So what's Northwest? I'll tell you, thank you for asking me.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Northwest School of the Arts is the performing arts magnet school for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. We are an audition only program. We have no athletics, no sports, and pretty much all of the extra curricular activities as well as, you know, the other courses that the students take are related to the arts. So kids come and they major in art, dance, music, either choral, orchestral, or band music, or piano, the piano majors, career tech ed, as far as particularly costume and clothing design. And in theater they can look at, they can take one of three tracks, either technical theater, musical theater or straight acting. So we are 6th through 12th grade. The kids come in and we have a number of students who start with us and are educated with us through all seven years. And there was both the middle school musical program as well as a high school musical theater program. We participate in most all of the things that, um, are out there in the world for as far as like slam poetry, thespians, we do North Carolina Theater Conference as well. Um, as well as the Blumey Awards What are, what are you all currently working on. Or did you just finish something for the Blumeys?
COREY MITCHELL:
We just finished, we closed Freaky Friday in April and that was our Blumey show. Um, it's at this point there are currently eight nominations that are on.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Well, congratulations with your nominations.
COREY MITCHELL:
Well, thank you, it, um, you know, it was, it was pretty good. We shall see how that goes. The funny thing is for us is I, and I know I'm going to sound like a jerk when I say it, but, hear me out and let me explain the caveat, is that I think that with us we're rarely competing against other schools. It Is what we're able to do and how that kind of fits into what people think of that is our potential as being a performing arts school as well as having whatever the of the uh, perception may be that people may have of me for being a Tony winner and that sort of thing. And so when I talk to my students about the Blumeys and talk to them about performing, it's never in terms of insert name of other school. It is in terms of what is your potential, what can you do and how do you bring those things to the table to make manifest. Because you can never predict what the outcome will be when a judge or an adjudicator comes to watch the work that you do. You can only be in charge of what it is that you bring to the table and the gifts that you bear with, um, this entire production. And fortunately it has worn itself out pretty well. So, um, that's where that falls.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Yeah, I, um, I keep up with you and what you all do, my, one of my best friends is one of your colleagues there and a, I know what your philosophy has been for years and so I appreciate hearing that because that's always what I told my students is we're just going to put the best of what we can do out there. And if we've done that, then we should be very proud of that despite what that adjudicator's opinion will be when they leave. So I appreciate that. You, I did not know you were a Teaching Fellow.
COREY MITCHELL:
I was, yes. I was from the second class ever of Teaching Fellows because for the high school graduating class, the first year of Teaching Fellows was 1987. I graduated high school in 1988. So I, am one of the, um, among the originals or as we call him, the OT's. Um, so yeah. So when I went to UNC Wilmington and I went and with the intent that essentially they told me kind of design my own program and then getting towards my junior year, they said, we can't let you do that anymore. We're going to have to do some things and shift you around and see what happens. And I said, well I really want to be a theater teacher. And so I had actually left school for a year cause I worked on cruise ships. I um, was a cruise ship entertainer. And when I returned the next year I was going to transfer to UNC Greensboro. And I had gotten to Greensboro, I had an apartment, I had all of those things in line. And for some weird reason I was there for three days. Classes hadn't even started. And I said, my heart is still in Wilmington. So I gave up the apartment. Fortunately it was so close to the beginning of the school year that I gave up the apartment and they let me do that. They didn't, the complex didn't hold me hostage with that because so many other students who they knew that they could immediately rent it. And I went back to Wilmington and that's where I finished my college career and was a theater major. I mean, excuse me, I was an English major, but my first school was a Laney High School and while I was teaching there English, I became friends with the choir teacher, with the chorus teacher, Greg. And they had to theater teachers there and Greg said, I want to do a musical. And I'm like, you got two theater teachers, what are you talking about? And it's like they don't do musicals. And so it was crazy. I directed one of the first musicals at this high school that had been done in years, years with the chorus teacher because when we did Damn Yankees, that's kind of where things sort of started with me working with high schoolers and directing because I was still performing and um going out on auditions and doing things around in the city and doing things both on stage and a couple of things on film.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
So how do you navigate the middle school and high school and, and all that goes along with that.
COREY MITCHELL:
Secretly drink at school. Seriously though, the middle school program, the middle school program has always been, and it was really funny, my first year of teaching at Northwest, the principal said to me, um, at the time it was the, his name was Charles LaBorde. It still is Charles. But Charles said to me, and next year we're going to start a $1 million renovation on the auditorium and also next year we're going to begin phasing out the middle school program. So we're not going to have any more sixth graders. And then the next year we're not going to get, we're not going to have seventh graders. And then the next year we're going to go to eighth grade and then we'll phase it out. And the thing was, it took 16 years before the renovation occurred with the auditorium and we still haven't phased out the middle school. So it's always just been a part of the fabric of the school and what we do. And all of us, all of us within the theater department at Northwest have high school as well as middle school classes. And a part of that comes from this philosophy of, being able to have, variety with the teachers and um, understanding different experiences. And what we believe is that once you're out in the world and you're auditioning in community theater and professional theater in college theater is that you're going to experience different directors and different teachers in different ways. And so if we can sort of give you a little bit of that conservatory feel while you're in middle and high school, I, we believe that it would serve the students better. So there are mornings I, at this point I only have one and there are mornings when I think, I wish, I wish, I wish I could plant a bomb under all of their chairs blow up.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I've seen several of your shows over the years and I, I know you've had numerous students come out and go on to have wonderful success as theatre artists, as professional theater artists, and one of my, my very favorite productions I've I saw at northwest was a your production of the Color Purple.
COREY MITCHELL:
Yes.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Can you tell me a little bit about that experience in that show, kind of where that led you?
COREY MITCHELL:
You know, it to get to that point where the color purple, I almost have to go backwards just a little bit because way back in the day, I remember maybe 2004 was my first time ever going to the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska, and I, I remember going and thinking, like, we had taken a contingency of students and those kids as we were watching, kept going, Mr. Mitchell, why can't we take a show there? Our shows are just as good. We need to bring a show to Nebraska. And it was something that really did implant in me way back then that I would like to do that. I would love to someday make that trek because there are, there were some schools that really have become legendary for the way that they produce. And a couple of years later I was there in Nebraska and I was talking with a representative from Theatrical Rights and I was kinda telling him about our program when he says, you know, we've got some shows coming down the road that you might be interested in. And the first show that he mentioned to me was Monte Python's Spam a Lot. And I'm like, Eh, I know there are a lot of people that are Anglo files. And like I laugh at Monte Python, but sometimes maybe I'm not the guy that gets it. And he said, well, we're also working on Color P,urple and we hope to sign that. And I said, if you get that, I am 100% interested because that story, influences of what that was on my young life. I can remember being in 10th grade sitting in Anatomy, physiology with my textbook up and a copy of the novel inside reading that book. And of course, you know, Oprah, and Whoopie, and Danny Glover and all of those who are in the movie. And in high school I was in this organization called 4H. I had so many friends from Union County that were extras in the movie. So it's just been a part of my fabric for so many years. And in 2012, Charlotte was hosting the Democratic National Convention and our principal said that he was contacted by someone who said, hey, we want you to put together something to perform for the convention as entertainment. And that's when I called, um, I called up Jim at Theatrical Rights. And I said, this is the time, please, please, please tell me that we can make it available. And he said, well, I have to move some things around and I have to get some permission, but not only can I do that, I do believe I can make you, you guys can be the first high school in the country to do it. That was really special. And they had sent a non-equity tour through Charlotte. And I don't know why, but I was just really bold and I called up the producers on that and said, hey, we have the potential to be the, the first high school in the country to do it. And the producers actually invited five of us to come to see the show and we did a backstage tour of it and in my thank you note to them for letting us come and see it and let me re-familiarize myself with the show. I said, so what happens with the set now? And they said, the tour is over, it's gone into a warehouse in West Virginia. And I said, you think you could let us use it? And they said, not for free, renting. So it really did become a very special show because in renting that set and getting them to pull it out of that warehouse in West Virginia where would have otherwise just gone unseen. We were able to do that. We talked for a long time about, I had the right kids in the right time with the right people cooperating to help to make that happen. And you know, there are sometimes every once in a while there are those moments that gather and color purple was definitely one of those, uh, one of those moments because, and in talking about that a couple of years before we did this production of Music Man and I had this high concept of that failed in a number of ways. Music Man, I mean failed, failed. But one of the things in Music Man, while I love the show at the very end of the show, you know, there's this big chase scene with Harold Hill where he's trying to get out of town and all the townspeople are looking for him and you know, when you have what four wings and how many different places can you hide someone on stage and how much of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Can you get chase scenes when you don't have a lot of doors to go in and out? And so I had this idea that I wanted to film the chase scene to look like an old keystone cops movie. Our booster president introduced me to this woman named Joanne Hock. And Joanne was a local director and had a production company called Emotion Arts. And she actually filmed this two minute chasing for us, for our production of Music Man, that was one of the things that was a success. And as we were planning Color Purple, I said, you know, Joanne, I have this idea because I'm about to try something that can either be hugely successful or an absolute epic fail. But either way it could be, it should be a pretty interesting story. And that was the first thoughts about Purple Dreams. We met over at Amelie's over in NoDa and sat down around cups of coughing and started brainstorming and talking about things. And as we were talking, more and more of my students were telling me about how many, how much of their lives parallel the lives of these characters in the Color Purple. And the more we talked, the more we realized it really is an interesting story here. And as a result, they followed us through auditions. They documented the auditions. They did the, um, first rehearsals following us through the production. And then we had it adjudicated for Nebraska. They even went with us and it just became bigger and bigger and bigger as we kept planning. And it really was beautiful. We got to Nebraska, I took a 125 students and faculty and volunteers with us to Lincoln, Nebraska when we descended that city and we put on a main stage that was unlike anything that I had ever seen before and that the students had ever seen. Because, uh, the ambition of it, we used the national tour set, which had 14 flies in it, all of the sets and everything. And there were something like, like 31 costume changes and things where some of those actors. So it was really fantastic. But I'll tell you that some of the things that yielded out of that class of students like Phillip Johnson, who was our Harpo, Philip is now in New York. He went to Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He auditioned for them when he was in Nebraska where we were doing per, uh, Purple. And he never would have gone to Nebraska had that not been for that, you know, because his last show was Hamilton in Chicago where he was the swing. He, you know, he was a part had his regular track, but he also would swing in and play Alexander Hamilton in the show. It was Macai Lee who is now doing Safe Word off Broadway and went to [North Carolina] School of the Arts and went full circle by doing the national tour of Color Purple. That was his first job out of college. Jordan Medley, who was my stage manager on it, who now has his own dance company and would not have gone to college, had it not been for Color Purple. And he went to UNCSA. Javontre Booker, went to UNCSA and is in New York performing now. And it's most recently without an a there. Ariel Blake who just booked a Netflix series and as an actress and went to UNCSA, she was our squeak. I could keep going and going and going. And you know, Eva Noblezada was not in the show, but she was in the same class with those guys and they were all sort of pushing you towards their own excellence. And you know, you see the success that Eva's had now and just yesterday, what day before yesterday? A second Tony nomination for a lead in a musical. So that big gamble that we took has paid off in dividends that I never ever expected. And Emotion Arts, had become Gray Hawk Films. And now, you know, for people that are interested in seeing it, if you wanted to contact a woman named Robin Gray, there is a, um, if you look on just about any of the social media platforms, there is an organization called Arts Empowers or you can look up Purple Dreams and contact Robin for access to that film.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Well, I like I said, I remember sitting and watching it and intermission hitting in, I, I found Matt [Hinson] and I was like, this is not a high school production. This is very special. Um, the, the young lady who was Celie, um, I saw, I saw Fantasia in it on Broadway and I saw, I've seen Cynthia Erivo. Um, in the revival, and I put your young woman right up there with those two. It was, the production was so beautiful and, and they, they tackled it. It was so honest and I didn't for once think these were high schoolers who didn't get what they were doing.
COREY MITCHELL:
You know, part of it, I think came from A. The way that we rehearsed it, because we really had to, I kind of had to thread a needle because there aren't a whole lot of high schools that have a diverse group of students. You know, and I, I know that I'm putting a caveat on, but there are some high schools that are predominantly African American high schools that have, where they know that the population of students that would be performing in those shows, the population of students that would come to see that show would be primarily African American. There are schools that are like in Texas and California and things like that, that are primarily Latino or Latinx population that they can do something that is, that specified. At Northwest we run the gamut for both socioeconomic students as well as, um, ethnicity and sexuality. And so to do a show that was so specifically targeted as an almost completely 100% African American cast that is at that size and that scope, we were threading a needle and I let the students know just about every day what a special opportunity they have, what a special place that they are in to be the first ones to tackle this and to do it in a way, in a place where nobody is expecting this to come from. And they definitely rose to that challenge that I laid down that gauntlet that I laid down for them. And they met it and then exceeded that expectation. And then by the time we got to Lincoln with the show, we exploded that expecta, or that expectation. I was very proud.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
As you should be. Talk to me a little bit about your, uh, your acting and directing experience outside of what you're doing in the classroom with your students.
COREY MITCHELL:
It's been a couple of years since I've done some onstage, um, work. I think the last musical that I did with Annie and Rene Rapp who has now graduated high school and has started her professional career. I think she told me she was in the fourth grade. I am really fortunate that, um, I've been able to not only direct at Northwest, but to get out in the community and direct locally. So when I first started, uh, I was a performer and I was a part of the, um, acting core with Opera House Theater Company that I did all through college and the beginning, you know, when I lived in Wilmington. And I loved that because being onstage and doing some of the roles that I've just been really fortunate with, like playing Simon in Jesus Christ superstar, but playing the black brother in Joseph, you know, you always got to get a black brother missing Benjamin Calypso. Oh No, Not He! But, um, anyway, um, having some unusual challenges, like playing one of the generals and Evita or playing Sancho Panzo in Man of LaMancha. And then when I came to Charlotte, I was still performing and still in a performance mode. And the very first show that I was able to do was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum where I was, uh, Hysterium. And when people ask me and they're off, they often ask me what would bring me back to the stage. I would love to do Forum one more time and play Pseudolis. I just think that's one of my dream roles. But now that we're in the Me Too Movement, I don't know if anyone's going to do Forum ever again, but I love it. But it does objectify. Let's see. Um, and then I'd been fortunate to start directing and I actually have a couple of shows coming up now, but I'll be directing Hair for a Hickory Community Theater and Akila and the Bee for Children's Theater [of Charlotte] that, so that's going to be my first endeavor with them. And I'll finish out the season for Theater Charlotte next year with Dreamgirls. And I've had a very good relationship with Theater Charlotte because earlier this year I did a, I directed Ain't Misbehavin, and the young lady that you were referencing from the Color Purple, Keston did the Nell Carter track. And it's been a couple of years since she's been in high school but that girl still got it. She is so charismatic and so alive onstage and so charming and can break your heart with just a couple of phrases cause her Mean to Me, I would set beside Nell Carter, myself and Nell's my heart. I love her. So that's saying a lot. Let's see, Sister Act that I directed for CP Tummer theater, a Chicago for Davidson. So there have been a number of opportunities and one of my favorite things has been a collaboration that I've had for the past few years with my friend Corlis Hayes for CPCC of directing. We've done I think four or five of the shows that are in the, um, Century Cycle from August Wilson because with The Piano Lesson, Fences, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. And it's really been fun to get in and um, collaborate with Corlis and to work with her on one of our great American and not just African American treasures of the theatre. So, that's been really fantastic.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I have to talk to you about your experience with winning that Tony, and kind of what that was like and what doors that open for you.
COREY MITCHELL:
First of all, it was absolutely surreal that entire weekend.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
It was surreal watching it. I just want you to know that and I had never been more proud of a colleague in our profession than I was that night when I watched you get that.
COREY MITCHELL:
It is, it was so crazy because I can remember the year before in 2014, it was 2014 yeah. When Billy Porter watching the Tony's and Billy Porter going on and saying that next year they're going to have this new award and I put on Facebook that night. I want to win that teacher told me, and sometimes they say, you speak it into existence, I didn't really believe that. There were some great things that came together with that. One of my, one of our alumni from Northwest, a young man named Kennedy, who I respect as an artist in so, so many ways and who is someone that I used to take with me to Nebraska and we would always sit beside each other and as we're watching the shows, I would say, okay, so what's wrong with that? Okay, what do they, what should, what should have happened here? What do you like about that? And we've become a same brain, but he wrote eloquent, eloquent letters as a recommendation. The production key from Purple Dreams put together a nomination video that I, if it wasn't me, I wouldn't believe that that person existed with the way that they did that. And out of the thousands of people that submitted, I don't know how it is that it was me. And going up that weekend was this crazy balance of like ridiculous and sublime. You know, an example of that was having the opportunity was like going to the red carpet because they had my tickets. They had the pass to get to the red carpet. And I remember going out and talking to them at the hotel and saying, I'd like to order a town car to take me over to radio city. And literally the guy in front said, why do you want a limo? Like you can just walk up. It's just you just go up the street here and you go there and you go. I'm like, but I'm going to be on the red carpet and I want, I don't want to just walk. They're like, well you can catch a cab, go to the end of the block here and catch a cab. And like but I really want a towncar. And he like literally would not order one. So I went to the end of the block. James was actually with me that evening because I said, hey, you wrote the letter and come with me and experience this because he is a composer and a playwright and a director. And I said, I want you to meet the people who are going to be your peers in a couple of years. And he was brilliant. I used to call him my compass when he was in high school. And he helped me to navigate in so many ways that evening. But we walked to the end of the block, we hailed a cab and I was looking for like a night, something fancy to try to, hail and I put my arm up in a Prius stopped. So we got into the Prius. He took us over to radio city. And I said, okay, put this in the window because I need you to drive over here to where they let you off. And he was like, oh no, no, no. That's only where the limos go. And I said, I know put this window, he was like, I cannot go back there. You're not, I'm not permitted. And I'm like, no, put this in the window and they'll let you through. He literally refused. And so, I got out. I told the filmmakers, because actually the people from Purple Dreams followed, uh, you know, went to the Tony's as well. And that's like this postscript for the documentary. And you see me in the, in the documentary it's like, hi, I'm Corey, I'm standing across the street from Radio City Music Hall and about to go in. I did that. Not because that's where we planned to meet, but that's where the cab, let me off. He refused to take me the rest of the way. So we walk this long block and the filmmakers are following me walking this long block and every, you know the people are lined up to see people go down the red carpet. So I walk all the way down to the opposite end and people are kind of cheering or like who is that? Why is he being filmed? That's crazy. And then I turned the circle to walk down the red carpet. So I was a sweaty mess, but it was fun and I think it was just the right thing that's like, oh, I'm big. And I'm like, no, I'm walking. But honestly that was, backstage, there were all of these parties, like there are things that people don't really know that happen. For one is Radio City has all these meeting rooms. And so there are private parties that are happening all over in the theater that are apart from where, you know, like what you see on the broadcast or where you're walking into the theater itself. So I went to a couple of private parties, then they took me back stage and they were like, well, just sit in here, you can hang. And they had the best spread of food I had ever seen. And at first I'm just sitting in there by myself and then, uh, Dulay Hill comes in from, he is on Suits now and we used to be on that show Psych. He came in and he sat down and, you know, we're kind of chatting and I stuck my foot in my mouth when I said, you know, I used to love your work when you were on the Cosby Show. And he was like, that's not me. I'm like, what? He goes like, no, everybody thinks I played Kenny on the Cosby Show. That wasn't me, not Kenny. Bud, the one. Remember Rudy's boyfriend is like Bud, he was like, that wasn't me. And I was like, ugh. And so he kind of stopped talking. Harry Connick Jr came in and sat down and then Debra Messing came in and sat down and then Jim Parsons came in and sat down and like, I'm like, wow. I thought of that line from Sweet Charity. The only person in this room that I've never heard of is me. So that was cool. And then I had to go to the bathroom. There was this bathroom back stage, one. And everybody had to line up. And so as I'm lining up to go to the bathroom, the person that was in front of me was Sting and so it's this single little toilet room. So he came out and I walked in and I just touched the toilet, like Sting just peed here, it was a great weekend. As I said, that was like sublime cause like I'm there amongst these people and they're just regular folks. Like Deborah was not happy because of dress was tight and she was like, Oh, oh you know, Sting was going to shake my hand after he came out of the bathroom and I didn't because I'm like, did you wash? It was great.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
What happened afterwards?
COREY MITCHELL:
The best part about all of that, other than telling these crazy stories
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Which are fantastic!
COREY MITCHELL:
All of which are true, is I've had the wonderful opportunity to do something through Purple Dreams and through the Tony Awards that I think is really, really serious, which is the opportunity to talk about the importance of arts education. And you know, I know that I'm sure a lot of the people that are listening to this podcast, the arts are what saved me when I felt like I was drowning in a sea of being anonymous and misunderstood when I was in high school. It was my time. Playing with the pep band or being on stage and drama or singing with Northside Singers or with our chamber choir. Those were the things that I went to school for. Those were the things that help to sustain me, but those are also tend to be the things that are the most natural when it comes to our educational system. And there are the things that are used as the biggest pawns, or as punishment for students, or the mediocrity of things and like the lack of investment in those things that I think are the most critical, some of the most critical aspects and the most critical aspects for a number of our students. Okay. The arts can be used as a jumping off point for so many topics and since there are so much rancor and misunderstanding in the world, choosing the right piece of art to present, to grow with a student over or with a group of students over to have a shared experience that is meaningful, where they feel empowered and completely fulfilled by that experience are the things that we should be working more towards as educators. And having that platform, being able to speak at conferences and meetings and, sometimes at those, like think tanks and things like that, having those opportunities to share, have been the things that have been the most satisfying and the most rewarding. And, really one of the best outcomes of what we're able to do with that. And so yeah, that's how it is. That's how it's changed me is using those things as a forum, as a jumping off point to talk about the things that I think are really important about education.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I love that and I love what you said. I know it was intentional that you may not have even realized it came out of your mouth, but the things that you learn and grow with your students and I, I could not agree with that more. My experience working with my students then and now learning alongside them and growing as an artist and an educator with them um, is probably some of the most meaningful moments I have in my career.
COREY MITCHELL:
You know, a friend of mine, used to, my friend Lee Chancey, used to say that real education begins with the question that a student asks you that you weren't planning for, that's where I think that for as arts educators, specifically for you and I as theater artists, those moments happen pretty much every day because something transpires in, in rehearsal, something transpires in class a scene presentation that occurs that spurs a conversation that requires examination and reaching into your own experience and being completely honest and being very forthright about your pain, your wisdom, and in many times your own ignorance about the subject matter. Um, those are the things where we grow and we learn.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
That's so true. As busy as you are and as crazy as your world is, how do you take care of yourself?
COREY MITCHELL:
Um, have you notice you can't see anything below my shoulders. Ain't a whole lot of care. But in all seriousness, what happens is one of the best things for me, one of the best aspects of something that happened for me as a kid was growing up. When I would say, if I ever said to my mother, I'm bored. Her response is go read a book. Because you can, if you are bored, you can travel just about everywhere you want to. You can engage your brain in a way that is so completely different than going outside and bouncing a ball, or now these days turning on a computer and logging into a game or going through and scrolling through a bunch of, uh, silly internet videos. And I find that that is still something that sustains me today is, uh, the thing that I am most proud of is my office that's filled with books, uh, filled with novels and filled with uh, biographies and things like that. So a part of my self care comes with that. Another part of my self care is I really do try to dedicate 11 months of work, of real hard steady work and I will double up and I will do a show, I'll have a show going at school and a show going with another theater company and I'll go, go, go. But I specifically, we'll take a, about four weeks that are mine. I don't have to travel anywhere. As much as I love to shoot, I'm broke all the time so I can't always afford to do that, but I try to make an oasis here at my home. Lucky enough to have a pool in the backyard. I will swim every day. I'll come in, me and Wayne Brady will have a date every morning at 10 to watch, Let's Make a Deal and I'm able to decompress that way. Mindfulness and spending time at the end of every day before I try to lay my head down to go to sleep and not think back on the mistakes. Instead what I do, if I stop and I smile and I try to think about the things that I did well that day, and find the focus that way
JIMMY CHRISMON:
It's hard to do though. It takes that conscious, conscious decision to do that.
COREY MITCHELL:
Yes, and your mind will race and you will do all kinds of stuff and you'll be looking at all the things, all the mistakes that you've made and all of the, the things that you had wish you had said to somebody and you know, you like look for, wow, what did I miss when I said that I was willing to do this and this and this? And so, yeah.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Yeah, yeah. What is a resource that you are currently using that is a must have for theater teachers?
COREY MITCHELL:
Hmm. There was an app that I I 100% love and believe in that helps me with every single show and it's expensive. They changed the pricing on it so that it's not as expensive as it used to be. That's called Stage Right. Do you know that one?
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I do. I'm familiar with it.
COREY MITCHELL:
I love Stage Right. I think that it is one of the best ways, especially if you're doing a show that's got a whole bunch of people for shifting people around on stage and doing all of that. It is so worth it to use that at school. I love, love, love and I was talking with, and she teaches at Belmont Abbey College, I was talking with this director and I said, why aren't you using MTPit? It's like what? What is that? And I'm like, look, every one of your cast members, if they have a smartphone, they can download every single track from the show on it. They can be, they can rehearse, they can do that. I can go into rehearsal with out an accompanist and literally run an entire read through, or excuse me, like a run to an entire one through of show. Yeah, just using my smart phone and speaker, it is such a wonderful resource and it is so well worth it because especially with something like MTPit where they even record the um, scene change music. I hand that to the tech director and to the techies and go, okay, you've got nine seconds, you've got this much music, do it, okay. And nothing drives me crazier in a show than when the action stops for a scene change or when I've seen those shows where literally the orchestra has to play the same song three times or four times over because I'm in, of an inefficiency scene change. So those are, that really has helped me with my biggest pet peeve in directing a show.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
We used MTPit all the time at South Pointe when I, when I was directing there. So I wholeheartedly endorse that one with you as well.
COREY MITCHELL:
Stage Right and MTPit have made my life phenomenally easier as a director.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
And MTPit is not that expensive either. In the grand scheme of your production. It's for me it was worth every penny,
COREY MITCHELL:
What $250 for just the rehearsal tracks?
JIMMY CHRISMON:
My final question for you is what are your parting words of wisdom for new theater teachers entering the field
COREY MITCHELL:
Run.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I knew you were going to say that.
COREY MITCHELL:
I mean we've been talking for an hour. Honestly. The, the biggest thing is, is A.. Mean what you say. Don't ever make a threat that you're not willing to follow through on. That's first of all. Okay. Second of all, set your limits of, and your expectations of, what you want out of that show and out of every child that's in that one. Number three, let them know, every one of them know why it is that they were chosen and what their function is within the grand scheme of telling the story and why it is that you're the one that needs to bring that to the stage. Number four, and this is the biggest one. Don't be afraid to show people your heart. There is so much educational jargon and there are so many expectations of what like, I don't know why it is that people think that teachers are robots, that we're not human, that we don't hurt, that we don't love, that we don't laugh and we don't do those things. Okay? Show them your heart. Let them know how important they are to you. Let them know sometimes when you're in pain and let them know when you're celebrating joy with it. We're all looking for connections and especially now than when I was started first started teaching in the mid nineties, there are so many ways to cut off and kids have this window to the world that is used as a wall between them and it's that they're, you know, I'm looking at the entire world, but I don't see what's right in front of my face and to particularly theatre, that is a way to create a human connection. And so use that opportunity. Use that in a way that they can see the world through something other than their phone. That's mostly it. Other than that, try and understand what it is that you want to build. Write that vision. Make it plain to them that, you know, in five years I want to a big musical and I want to do this, but you are part of a building block to create a legacy so that we can get to that. And you know, kids always want to know Me me me, now. Now, now my, my my. I want that role. I want this. Every year I'll have a kid go, why'd you wait until I did, why did you wait till I graduated before you did that show? And I said, and my response to them, as always, I was able to do that show because you graduated from here and you helped me grow to get to that point where I can. So thank you. Even though you weren't on the stage, you were a part of helping to make this show happen and so yeah,
JIMMY CHRISMON:
That's great. Thank you, Corey. I am very grateful for you talking to you.
COREY MITCHELL:
JImmy, I truly appreciate this invitation. This was a long time getting to where we can have this conversation and I swear I will swear, I hope I said one or two things that make sense. So hopefully you can, five minutes.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I have gathered stuff from it, I know my listeners are going to enjoy it as well. So thank you so much and I wish you all the best with everything you're doing.
COREY MITCHELL:
Thank you so much.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I truly enjoyed my conversation with Corey. I had a wonderful time just chatting with him, uh, catching up and hearing his stories and his experiences so far. Corey is the first of the five Tony Award winners for the excellence in theater education. This year's winner has just been announced and it is a Virginia theater teacher, Madeline Michel, I believe that's Michelle M. I. C. H. E. L. Um, so I'm excited to hear her story. Uh, you can check out her, a little bit about her on playbill.com that article just came out. Um, but you can also tune into the Tony Awards on Sunday, June 9th, uh, on CBS hosted by James Corden at Radio City Music Hall, uh, to hear about her as well as all of the other award winners from the 2018-19 Broadway season. I know I will be camped out watching it that evening as it is one of the highlights of my year. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. Um, you can always find all of our archives of our past episodes as well as transcripts of all the episodes, including the resources that each teacher has recommended on our website at www.thedtalks.com. You can find us on any of your favorite podcast providers, Apple Podcasts on iTunes, Google Podcast on Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, Anypod, Tunein, and Youtube. You can always reach out to me and contact me if you want to give me any feedback, any suggestions for show topics, or if you'd like to appear on the show as a guest, email me at thedtalkspodcast@gmail.com. You can find us on Twitter @theatreedtalks. You can find us on Tumblr at thedtalks.tumblr.com Facebook THED Talks, Instagram @thedtalkspodcast, and again, our website, www.dtalks.com. Please go on your podcast provider, subscribe to the show, rate us, give us some stars, review us, tell us what you're liking and what you would like to see us do. And then of course share the podcast with those theater teachers and theater students who you think could benefit from what I'm doing here on the show. I'm Jimmy Chrismon. I have thoroughly enjoyed chatting with you today. I, uh, I want to thank Joel Hamlin and Joshua Shusterman for the use of their original song Magnetize. And, uh, most of you have either wrapped up your school year are, you are in the very, very final hours of wrapping it up. So I hope you had a wonderful school year. I hope you have a wonderful summer planned ahead of you. And, uh, we'll have one or two more episodes in us before we take a summer break and we'll be back in August. Thank you for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week.
