1.5 A Conversation with Lea Marshall
This week Jimmy talks with high school director Lea Marshall in Tallahassee, FL. She shares her unique journey to teaching theatre and lots of valuable resources for assessment, Shakespeare, and working smarter instead of harder!
Lea’s Recommended Resources:
Drama Teacher Academy: https://www.theatrefolk.com/
Lea’s Classroom Website: http://www.leontheatre.com/
JIMMY CHRISMON:
You're listening to THED talks, episode five with Jimmy Chrismon. THED Talks is a podcast for theatre teachers and theatre education students. I'm Jimmy Chrismon. I'm the theatre education professor at Illinois State University. And 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 in teaching, and provide resources to better your practice in your theatre classroom. Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate seeing all the people listening to the different episodes and, and our listenership growing each week. So thank you so much for subscribing. Thank you so much for listening and sharing, uh, what we're doing here at THED Talks. So I'm very grateful for you and, um, I hope you're enjoying listening to the podcast as much as I am creating it. This week I got the chance to talk with Lea Marshall at Leon High School in Tallahassee, Florida. Lea is an energetic and exuberant teacher. I know her students absolutely adore her and get a lot out of her classes. I hope that uh, her experience and her stories brighten your day and make you laugh as well as make you think a little bit about your practice and what you are doing. If you want to contact me, you can always reach me at thedtalkspodcast@gmail.com. You can always find us on Twitter @theatreedtalks. On Tumblr thedtalks.tumblr.com. You can find us on Facebook at THED Talks, Instagram @thedtalkspodcast, and of course our website, www.thedtalks.com. On the website we have the entire archive of our episodes so far as well as transcripts from each episode. So that is available to you as well as all of our social media where I post pictures and I post quotes. Um, and I will also be posting resources that have been brought up so far on the show. So again, thank you so much for joining us and I hope you enjoy my conversation with Lee. I am excited to welcome today Mrs. Lea Marshall. She is a high school theatre teacher in Tallahassee, Florida. Lea, introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about your journey to where you are and what you're doing now and a little bit about your school that you're in now.
LEA MARSHALL:
Okay, great. Well, I'll start with my school. I'm at Leon High School and which is a inner city, but uh, high school here, but also with a strong strong foundation in performing arts. And I love it. It's where my mom and dad went to high school. It is not where I went to high school though. I begged my parents to send me to Leon High School. So my dad said that it's my middle age rebellion that now I am at Leon High School as a teacher. I'm so, I'm fine with that. I'm fine with being a middle aged, rebellious person. So I have a crazy kind of way that I fell into teaching. And when I tell people, when I look over it, I am 51 years old. Uh, when I look over my life and kind of my journey, I just, I would be in a room and I would be perfectly happy in the room I was in. I loved the room I was in and the door would open and I'd be like, Huh, I wonder what's in that next room. And so I walked through the open door and then I'd be in a whole new room and I would be like, oh, I don't really know this room. So I'd figure it out and so I'd stay in that room. I was perfectly, and then another door would open. And so I'd come in another room. And so it's just been this kind of labyrinth and maze of from one room to another. So, uh, I, I'll take it back at the very beginning. I was born okay. Um, maybe at, maybe it fast forward to, I was in college and I was an education major in college, but I fell in love with Shakespeare. I was an elementary and early childhood education major in college and I fell in love with Shakespeare. I fell in love with Taming of the Shrew. I saw three different Taming of the Shrew, uh, productions over the course of, I think about a year, maybe even less than a year. And they all had a different ending, which I thought was weird because it was the same words. And in one of them, thought that was weird. Uh, in one of them, um, uh, it ended where, uh, she was completely demolished by Petruchio. She was just like a, you know, an abused wife kind of giving this, you know, kind of in the end, you know, with her hand under his foot, like, you know, hurt me if you will, kind of thing. And then in the another one, she was totally victorious and he was adorable. And you, hashtag goals for their relationship and you're like, they, they've got it. They are still married and having a great time wherever they are today. And then in the third one she was angry and you thought she was going to lady Macbeth, him in the, in the night. And, and I just was so confused by that, by three different endings. And so I went back and I read the text and I was like, wait a minute, you can read this any of those ways. And at that point I was, um, you know, like a 19 year old college student and I felt, I tell my students this story when I introduced them to Shakespeare and I felt like so much of my life had been written for me, that where I went to school had been written for me. I was at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and I had chosen that college. But you know, my dad, you know, my parents had taken me on a college, I just felt like a lot had been written for me. Where I would live and all of that. And I thought, but guess what? I get to say the lines the way that I want to say them. And that makes a difference whether I am angry or I am, um, you know, suppressed or I am victorious and having the time of my life. And so I thought that I was perhaps a genius having come up with that. Um, and so I, um, uh, did a stint at the, um, in England at the RSC and did some things there and studied and worked with because I was an elementary ed major. I worked with schools there and was able to kind of further my elementary ed thing by doing kind of a, a stint with the RSC, doing some stuff there with Furman. And so it was really great. And so I came back and was teaching elementary school and doing Shakespeare in my classrooms in elementary school. And I met some great people doing Shakespeare in elementary school, did some stuff over at the Shakespeare Festival in Alabama and the Shakespeare Festival in Atlanta. And then I started having babies and I had three of them within less than five years. And I had some great principals that let me just come back and teach drama like one day a week with a baby strapped to my chest or two days a week depending on if I was, how pregnant I was. And so I taught drama at the elementary level. And I also help with some writing of Shakespeare curriculum for elementary school students. Um, that was in Atlanta and I did some stuff at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta. And like I said, a door would open. I'd be like, I wonder what's in that room. I'll go do that for a while. So then we moved to Tallahassee and I was a stay at home mom for 15 years and not, but I kept on studying and writing curriculum and going to see plays and just a lot of theatre. My life. just kind of did theatre things, um, because I loved it. And then our school, our middle school here became a performing arts middle school, inner city middle school where my kids went to school, became a performing arts middle school. So I went in and taught one day a week to help the English teacher that they made teach theatre there and did that. And then they were like, would you direct a musical? I'm like, I've never directed a musical, but look at that open door. Let's just walk through it. So I wonder what it looks like in this room where I direct musicals. So I'm my greatest, at my greatest. I'm not a great actress. I tell people I can't dance, I can't sing, I can't act, but I can pretend like I can do all three of those things. So I directed a middle school and then, uh, musical there and then they were, they were like, come back and teach theatre. I was like, I'd probably have to go back to school. And I contacted the department of ed and they're like, no, you just have to take a couple of tests. I was like, test, I can take a test, open that door, I'll walk through it. So I walked through that door. I got certified to teach. So I started teaching middle school and then the high school contacted me and said, please come to the high school. And I said, Oh, I'm not ready. And they're like, here's an open door and push me through it. So I came to the high school where I am now and I also, during that time I also taught preschool theatre before, during my little stint staying at home and wrote musicals fsor the preschool theatre and wrote some catchy little tune to, to uh, the Sneetches, the Star Belly Sneetches I would take books. I did a lot of stories, theatre for the preschool and stuff. So, uh, I've just had, I've taught every level now, preschool, elementary, middle, and high school. I've loved every level. I loved whatever room I was in. I was overwhelmed with whatever room I was in, but I loved it and, and I'll stay there until another door opens and somebody pushes me through it.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I have to catch my breath after your journey
LEA MARSHALL:
I know
JIMMY CHRISMON:
At the different levels, what are some of the similarities and differences you found from preschool all the way through high school with the kids?
LEA MARSHALL:
I'll tell you my biggest, the hill I will die on is that everyone loves a good story. Preschoolers love a good story. Elementary school students and middle school students, high school students and your audience. Adults love a good story. So I am, I am just big into story theory, the hero's journey, all of that. And um, and uh, I also, for me teaching elementary school, when I came around, teaching elementary school back in the 80s, we were all about, you know, theme units, doing a unit theme for awhile. And so I love a good theme. And so every year at the high school, I have a theme for the year. This year our theme and all of our plays and kind of all of my, my thinking is around this theme. And this year it is, the stories are there. If you listen and it actually comes from a beautiful poem by Kate Tempest. Yeah, Kate tempest, the stories are there. If you listen everyday odysseys dreams, dreams versus decisions, a storage of airfield listens, a story are there, the stories are you, and last year it was strong wind, strong trees. And so our plays reflect that. And the year before my first year there, it was fear versus love because I thought a new teacher, you can be afraid and you know in fear make decisions or in love accept you know, the new way things were going to be done and we either act out of fear or love. We either react in fear or act out of love and I wanted to do that too. I didn't want to be afraid of the students or afraid when students said that's not how we used to do it or that kind of thing. I wanted to act in love and, okay, tell me about that. Tell me why that was important to you. So every year and I swear the themes are really, for me it's, it's what I need to learn that year and hopefully the kids do too. But this year it's been a big year of listening and the stories are there if you listen.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
When I was in the classroom, everyone always asked me how I picked the shows that we did. I kind of felt a little selfish and saying it, but at the same time I'm like, no, I'm not going to be selfish in saying this is, I have to be attracted to it. I, I'm the one who lived with it about two or three months more than the kids do. So I have to be the one doing it and the stories that we're telling, so I think that is beautiful.
LEA MARSHALL:
I tell the kids, I read a play a day in the summer, I challenge myself to read a play a day and you know, you don't always read the whole play because when I, when I'm reading a play, it either, either something visually comes out of the play to me and I keep reading or I don't, and then I'm not going to, that's not going to be when I put on. But I tell kids all the time, the plays pick me. There is some, I could go through every play that I've done and there is some way that either that play just kept putting itself on my desk. Like I'm like, why? Well, when we did Steel Magnolias I'm like, why, why in the world this year? I did not order seven copies of Steel Magnolias but Amazon keeps sending them to me. Why do I have seven copies of Steel every time I went to the mailbox, I'm like another copy of Steel Magnolias? Who would have done that? I mean I had seven scripts. I'm like, I might as well put it on. I already got all of the scripts. So um, you know, so it, it really is the craziest way that the plays come to me and you know, it, it, I just cannot not do that play is how it comes down at the end.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Well, what's been the most surprising one that jumped out at you?
LEA MARSHALL:
Yeah. First of all, steel magnolias cause it was so hard.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
That's a hard play!
LEA MARSHALL:
Uh,. that's a hard play. I did it with my advanced class when we were supposed to be doing a one act. That ain't a one act. In fact that that's a three act and the first act is a one act and then you've got two more. Then, I don't know who thought it was a good idea to put the six high school girls only in a play. Not a good idea, but it ended up it and I double cast it.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Of course you did.
LEA MARSHALL:
All girls, all girls. So they're like, you like cast A better, no, you like cast B better. Oh, whatever. I don't like any of you anymore.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I like cast C, see yourself out. Um, uh, but then we just did a devised piece, which I don't how to write a play. I don't know if y'all noticed, but I didn't go to school for that or any of this. So, um, but this last summer I went to the Tennessee Arts Academy fabulous! And you can go, even if you're not from Tennessee, you don't even have to lie to them. They took me from Florida. Um, this year they actually gave me a scholarship. I was like, I'm still from Florida people. But um, there was a guy there, Noah Martin, he's fabulous and he does all devised youth theatre. And so, and I'd already, the play had already chosen me. I was already going to do this devised piece. And I'm like, well, thank goodness there is somebody to tell me how to do it. And it was about the teenage brain.
LEA MARSHALL:
It was about the neuroscience of the teenage brain who can't write a play off that? Who? I mean really just screams to be written. So, um, anyway, Noah Martin was really great and he actually met with me one on one once. He realized I was actually going to do this full thing this year and he helped me with some workshop ideas for getting it started and that kind of thing. Well, we got into this process and my lead actor who was also his freshman year, he was Atticus Finch for me. So this is a great guy who is a great actor. I mean if you're Atticus Finch your freshman year, you've got to have some gravitas. So he's great. Um, and his freshman, sophomore year, he really idolized me. I hate it when they become juniors and they are smarter than you and they realize that because you know, the thrill is gone. So, um, this year I could, I could tell this year he was like kind of a little over me. It was horrible. I fell off my pedestal and so he, the whole time I could just tell that he was not, he's helping write it. He is all in, but he's also like all in. But I know in his head he's going, this sucks, this play sucks. And in my head I'm like, he might be right this play really, but we're going to do it, we're going to do it. And we believe in and we've all learned something. I've learned a lot about the teenage brain. Y'All have all learned a lot about the teenage brain. Neither of us is saying out loud that we really think that this might stuck. So opening night comes and we get the first laugh and then we get people crying and we get parents walking out and saying, every parent of a teenager should see this show. Every kid in this school should see this show. This is the most incredible show I've ever seen. We had, I had a really, really bright student who came all three times because she said, I've never, she's not even a theatre student. She's like, I've never seen a show like this. I'm bringing my parents back and bringing my boyfriend. Oh my gosh, it was, and so finally this kid and I like look at each other eye to eye and we're like, okay, I know you thought it sucked. It didn't, it didn't. We wrote a show, we wrote a show, we were so good. And then they called from TEDX FSU and wanted us to come and present at TEDX. We called it our TED TED Talk or our TED Talk Talk because we actually did the talk for the TED Speakers. So we're not sure if it's a TED Talk Talk or a TED TED Talk. We can't figure it out. So, um, but we got to for all the TEDX speakers tell how we were inspired by a TED Talk about the teenage brain and actually it's, it's called Brainstorm and Nick Hearn out of the UK has a script of it, but you can devise it also and go with their kind of, their format for it, which is what we did. We used probably about 5% of the material they had. And then we devised the rest of it. And it is based on a TED Talk by Susan Blakemore, Dr. Susan Blakemore? Sarah Jane Blakemore, sorry, Dr Sarah Jane Blakemore about the teenage brain so it was inspired by a TED Talk. We watched the TED Talk and talked about how, and John Malley, the one the student did the THD Talk for us. And he was just great about talking about how we took neuroscience of the teenage brain and made it into art. And I loved my set for it. I loved everything about it at the end though, in the middle. I didn't love any of it, so, but that, you know, at the end it was great. The theatre magic happened.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
That's awesome. Don't think I ever did devised work with my, with my high schoolers when I taught, but I'm teaching, uh, a class right now and, and they actually have their performances next week of their device pieces. And I think they've been in that place of, oh my gosh, this sucks. I don't, this is not good. But I've, I've intentionally not been at all their rehearsals because I want it to be their creation. And when I saw their first showing, I'm like, these are some really powerful pieces. And they were like really like yeah you need to keep, keep working, keep cleaning. But here's some thoughts. Here are some suggestions but keep going with it. So I can't wait to see their final things next week. So I, I'm, I'm hoping, I'm hoping for the same results that you had with yours.
LEA MARSHALL:
Yeah, I think you just get too close to it sometimes and you don't know. I mean we did not know how it would come, and you get really close and you get really familiar with it and you think, is this, is this joke gonna fall flat? Is this going to mean anything to anybody? And it really did. It resonated a lot with the students who were in it and who came to see it and their parents.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I want to shift gears just a little bit. I, I was talking to you a little bit before, um, before we started talking for the interview that I've fallen in love with your class website. And the thing that I've particularly fallen in love with that I've shared with my students this week was your Shakespearience. Cause at IsSU every, it's all about Shakespeare, um, with Illinois Shakespeare Festival housed there. So this is going to get me some brownie points with my upper admin. So let's talk a little bit about that and what, what, what that's what that's all about. Cause I always had a hard time teaching and teaching the love of Shakespeare.
LEA MARSHALL:
Yeah. I don't know if I taught the love of it really well right now. They're all a little, they're all a little hatred of it because we're in the middle of it. It, you know, it is a catchy name. First of all, Shakespearience. It is a catchy name. It, we always do it in April. It is our showcase. It's my showcase for all the classes, the classes. This is their chance to get on the stage. And so my theatre one students, we do a unit on Midsummer Night's Dream. I think that's a totally approachable, and it's not taught. Macbeth. My, um, 10th graders do Macbeth, my ninth graders do. Romeo and Juliet get, so let's have a little comedy people. So we do Midsummer Night's Dream, which by the way, I mean what teenager can't identify with. My Dad doesn't like my boyfriend, but he likes this other one better. So, uh, we do Midsummer Night's Dream and actually the first thing we do is read it in a, um, it's a great Lois Burdette who is a friend of mine. She does Shakespeare Can Be Fun series. And so we read the Shakespeare Can Be Fun. It's like a children's book and rhyming couplets to get them familiar with the story so that they, you know, the story, they know the story of the royalty, they know the story of the rude mechanicals and they know the story of the fairies, what's going on. And so we do that and that has several of the famous lines in it. We look at some of the monologues and things in there. And then we watch, have you seen Julie Taymor's Midsummer Night's Dream?
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I have not.
LEA MARSHALL:
You can, or I have the DVD of it and it is spectacular. I forget. It's at a new theatre and it's only a couple of years old. And every part of that theatre moves and I'm so super jealous. It's in a thrust, um, space and the tech on it is incredible. The costumes are incredible and the kids really get into it. Um, the lady, the lady that plays Puck is the neighbor from Harry Potter, the old lady neighbor. She's a tiny little incredible Shakespearian actor. She's done King Lear and I can't remember what her name is, but you know, you tell them that it's from Harry Potter. You get them a little, little bit more. There's also a scene where all the lovers strip down to their underwear and fight. That's usually pretty exciting in a theatre classroom as is when to Titania and Bottom come back up from their little rendezvous. But there's nothing, it's completely PG, so it's fine. But it's a great, great, it kind of get, it's got a little creepy feel to it in spots. So they're, they get very into this version of it, so, oh, but before they do that, they choose what character they're going to do a monologue from. And then they choose a monologue. And I have about 50 of them printed up from that and they get to choose their monologue and then we watch it and their monologues all say what scene and what, uh, what acts and what scene. So hopefully they see it in the things they know, who else is on stage, you know, all of that kind of thing. And then we start to work our monologue. So then we do that. And then just today was the first day of auditions. So I run it just like an audition. And do I have to, yes, it is a forced audition. So you were voluntold. So they all audition, they get up and it's for a grade. My grading system is, um, I love my grading system. So I do want to share it with you, my grading system, because I'm super lazy and I have to be there for a long rehearsal, so I don't want to really grade a lot of things is I grade on a five point scale and so zero is you didn't do a darn tooting thing. You get a zero one is a 25 which means you're still learning. I grade. It's kind of on this learning is step one. So if you're still learning but you get up and you slate and you do the first line, you're going to get a 25 you're still learning it. But at least you show me that you're trying to learn it. And then a two is that you are up at the remembering stage. So remembering and you're going to get 50 points. So if you do a couple of lines and I see that you're remembering some of the stuff that we've talked about, you're at a 50 that's at least better than a zero. Three is a 75 and that's you're applying, you are applying something that we've done in class to whatever it is. And you've got a 75 you got a C, average, applying. Great, fabulous applying. Four is that you are up at the analysis stage. Like you haved done a little work on this. You've, you know, analyze maybe that she's dropped that Titania is on the ground sleeping and you're dropping liquid in her eyes. So you've done some analysis. Granted, that ain't rocket science, but you're going to get a hundred for a four. 125 is you are creating, you are creating something new. I have not seen that Oberon before. I have not seen Hermia do that before or whatever. So 125. I grade everything with this scale. So you may get a 75 on things but you're going to get 125 if you do something creative at some point. So it's super easy to grade everything. One, two, three, four, five and they get really familiar with it. Now they, the kids that are not performing have in front of them an audition sheet, they write everybody's name down and they also evaluate between a zero and a four. I don't let them give a five cause they give their friends a five. I'm the one that can give this extra creative thing cause I've seen the most midsummer. So I know whether you're really being creative or not. So that keeps the other one's busy and they've got to do that and they get a grade for turning in that work. Also because they're the adjudicators to, I want them to be able to, you know, look and see what is good acting, what isn't good acting. So anyway, so they sit and do that. We do that and then at the end of each day I will announce who is, who I've cast in my Shakespearience. I still have three more. I still have two more days of auditions. I try and cast about 20 minutes of theatre one kids, which is about 20 theatre one kids performing. Theatre two. They do scenes. They choose a two to four person scene. They look at the play that it's from and everything. They have to do that work on their own. And they uh, student direct those. Again, we watch them, we adjudicate them and then we choose some to go to the Shakespearience. Now theatre two. It gets a little more competitive about that. And then theatre three, four, they read a Shakespeare play they've never read before. And then they can do anything they want from Shakespeare. They can, um, sing something from Kiss Me Kate or from Something Rotten. They can, I have a group that's doing a small Romeo and Juliet play. We've done Tom Stoppard's 15 Minute Hamlet before, different things like that. Uh, so they, one of them is doing, she's doing a monologue and somebody else is translating it into modern English and doing like a kind of a teen speak of it on the, you know, line by line kind of thing. So they get to do whatever they want with Shakespeare, something creative that they are doing totally on their own. And so it's about an hour show, Shake the Shakespeare and we always do it right near his birth death date. So this year it's on the 23rd, so that will be coming up next week.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
That is really cool and I can already guarantee you that I will be seeing some of these one through five scales rom my theatre ed students cause I love that. I love that. That's fantastic. It's simple. And, it's effective.
LEA MARSHALL:
Super easy. I'll have to Send you. Yeah, I'll send you my big, I call it climbing, learning mountain, and I think it shows kids. I talk a lot about that. We think that you have to be creative and really creativity is, you've learned it, you've applied it, you've synthesized and about, you know, and value. And it's right above there. It's right. It's the, actually the last step of learning is creating something new with it. And so I tell kids that, you know, and, and in theatre learning it and remembering it is way down on the bottom. They think once I've memorized it, I'm done. Oh No, there's so much more to that mountain afterwards. So I'll send you my visual on that. Um, and I have hanging up on my wall and it makes it, first of all, super easy to grade everything. And I had a kid today who was like, why did I get a c on that? I'm like, well, you got a 75. I might, can you tell me how your thing was? Well, it wasn't the best, but it wasn't horrible. I'm like, ah. Right. Okay. You said it exactly. It wasn't the best. It wasn't a hundred and it wasn't horrible. A 50, it was a 75. All right. Good day.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I love it.
LEA MARSHALL:
Goodbye. Yeah.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Tell me a little bit, a couple of your favorite stories from your career. They can be funny stories, horror stories, things that have impacted you that are meaningful, whatever.
LEA MARSHALL:
I think some of my favorite stories are things that happen that aren't on the lesson plans. I really, I I, you know, I love Brian Mendler, Brian Mendler, he's uh, he's all about kind of the disruptive kids and a lot of my discipline and behavior management stuff is from Brian, Brian Mendler, who is like, you know, there's not a kid that you cannot reach a and have a relationship with. And you know, I stand at my doorway and when they come in they give me a handshake, hug or high five and I look in their eyes and I say, you know, hey Bob, you know, I say their name and look in their eyes. And I started that in middle school because I know that there were middle schoolers that went through the day and nobody looked in their eyes and said anything to them. And I didn't want them to go home without somebody looking into their beady little eyes and saying their name and acting like they were so happy to see them. And so I stand at my door and do that. And in the beginning it was like torture because I wanted those five minutes to check my email to do the roll or whatever. Well now I really think that is one of the most important things that I do is stand at that door. And you know, you can tell a lot of times if they're having a bad day. And so like today I asked a girl, is everything okay? And she just started crying. And I think those are the moments when you realize, you know how much these kids need somebody to listen to them and just look into their eyes. Say, are you doing okay? You know, or it'll be okay. And we talked a little bit, it was something going on with, you know, uh, an extended member of her family. And I'm like, Yep. You know, my biggest thing is what is mine to do? What's your role in this? What is your role that you need to do? Act well your part, therein all the honor lies. What's your part to do in this? Okay. Just to love her. All right. Then just do that. Don't worry about solving it. Don't worry about solving it. So I think those things are really huge. Um, we do this thing also in class. I'm surprised I ever get to teach anything because we do this thing called feelings and intentions and it's from a friend of mine, Jess Fillmore who is out, is she Virginia or North Carolina? Anyway, she's an incredible theatre educator and I've taken lots of classes with her and she does this so much better than me, but it's a check in every day. And it's, um, how are you? Because if you're going to be a character, you've got to know what are you feeling? What is your intention? My classroom day should be like a show. So you come in like you're being greeted by, I'm the house manager, you're being greeted as you come in, take your seat, you get your notebook, that's your prop. And then our show begins. And so you've got to know your character. How are you feeling and what your intentions are. They stand up in most. And I start them out everyday. Hi i'm Mrs. Marshall. I do this six times a day. Every day I'm Mrs. Marshall, I'm feeling great. I say my name every day. I don't know why they don't know my name by now, I'm feeling great, I'm feeling awesome, I'm feeling tired, I'm feeling overwhelmed, I'm feeling like I have a show opening, whatever it is. And my intention today is to watch your fabulous auditions or whatever. Or we're going to talk about what we're gonna look at your monologues today and we're going to pick out the punctuation marks. I'm a tell you how that's going to help you out. So I'm going to tell them a little bit about what the lesson is. And then, um, so that's my intention for the day and then the next kid goes, well this thing can get long. And I work all the time on them. This and it's a mini monologue is what it is. And um, so they stand up. Well, I've had a kid who stood up and said that he has been sober for two months now and he wanted us to know that and we all clapped and I cried and went and hugged him. And um, I had a kid that wouldn't do it all last year at all, never did it. I really, I got this kid's, found out his favorite music artists I like would talk to him about other stuff. Cause Brian Mendler, like if you talk to a kid about things that not aren't, you know, on the curriculum 10 days in a row for two minutes each day, you'll have them forever. Well, I had this kid forever, but he still never did any theatre stuff for me. But he didn't do it all year, you know, and the other kids, you know, finally accepted it. Sometimes one of them would do his for him or whatever, but you know, the last day of school he like said, Hey, I just want you to know I'm feeling good. And my intention is you beat me out this year by asking me every day because every day I start a new and I'm like, Everyday Justin, do you want to go? And, nope. No. Okay. All right. Every day he's like, when will you stop asking? I'm like, listen dude, I tried out for cheerleading seven years in a row and never made it. You cannot outlast me. You don't even know what kind of perseverance that it takes. So. Um, I think just sometimes, and I say, you know, even though it gets messy sometimes, and I'm like, y'all listen to each other. Oh my God, you know, I don't need to hear your whole story of what you had for lunch. But every now and then you get a kid that'll just get up and you know, my grandfather died yesterday and I'm having a really, really hard time with it. My dog, we're putting down my dog today. And then you'll get a kid that the kid you least expect. It will come from across the room and hug that kid and you're like, this is why I do it. This is why I do that every day. And this is why I teach theatre because I have the time to do that every day. And so it's just a great way to start your day. I wish it was perfect. I wish it was more manageable at times. Sometimes I wish it didn't take 10 minutes. I, you know, I won't let them get away with my intention is to sit back down. I'm like, that's not you. That's gravity. You have to have an intention, you know, and I, and if they go, I don't have one, then I do this whole speech about, and they're all like, don't make her do the speech. I'm like, if you don't have an intention for the next hour, you won't have an intention for your day. I'm like, this is the only sixth period on April 16th, 2019 you'll ever get, have an intention for it. Have an intention for it, do you intend to have a good time? Do you intend to make a new friend? Do you intend to get through your, do you intend not to audition? Did they will at least say that and maybe it'll happen and maybe it won't, but have an intention for today. So that I want my kids, when I died, they've all promised it will come to my funeral and they'll go, she was so intentional, she probably meant to die. She was so intentional. So, which is funny cause I feel like with everything I do, I do try and be so intentional. I told him, I said maybe that's why the plate turned out okay. Cause we're usually intentional. We felt like we weren't, we felt like it just was not coming, that we were not being intentional enough. And then it did, you know, is Aristotle says, if you make it a habit, it'll happen. So we try and I try and be very intentional with stuff, but um, and I try and make them think through that through what is your intention for the day? And, and they do say they miss it after they leave over the summer. They're like, nobody ever asked me how I was. I never got to say how I felt. And I think teenagers today they don't, a lot times, they don't think about how they feel or they don't. And I always say feelings aren't facts. I can say I feel angry, but feelings aren't facts. You know, they're not. And you, and a lot of times they'll say I feel horrible, but I intend to make this a good class period or I intend to get over it in this class period. And so that's a great thing because I think we need to teach them, you know, you can over it, you can feel horrible and you can, you can get over it. You know, I feel mad at my friend, but I'm going to do something this class period that helps me to forget that. Great. That's a great intention.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
That's awesome. Yeah, I love that you invest that a little bit of time in them. And I found when you do that, you get way more out of them
LEA MARSHALL:
And, and you learn so much about them. I mean you, it's like I know there's that one. There's nobody you wouldn't like if you didn't know their story or there's nobody that you couldn't, if you didn't know their story unless you know some of these kids' stories. It's like, you know, oh my gosh, you learned four lines of your Shakespeare monologue. Way to go because I know that your mom kicked you out and your dad barely took you in last week. Like four lines of a Shakespeare monologue. Great. Cause I don't know if I could've done that if I were you. You are killing it at being a human being right now. And so thanks for learning four out of 12 lines of Theseus. Do those four with gusto. You go kid in. It's really, four I mean what in the grand scheme of things, the fact that they dealt with that and learn four lines. Incredible.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
What do you, what do you see as the greatest need in your students or just students in general, mental, emotional that we as theatre teachers can help them with?
LEA MARSHALL:
Oh my gosh. to learn how to work with everyone to learn how to work and hey, we're not doing so well as adults with that. So, and I say for my theatre one kids, my goal, I just redid my little. I just, I made a little trifold and they all start with a c. And let me see if I can remember. Um, communication, collaboration and creativity. Those are my three goals. And it's a theatre, a theatre one, challenges, communication, collaboration, and creativity. And I think that's really it. How to communicate and express themselves in a way that other people will listen and theatre's great at that. And then how to collaborate, how to work with other people and listen and get your ideas in and also accept their ideas and make something great together. And then how to create, how to create something and what are the steps to creating something new. Um, and then theatre two is all about the theatre history. It is about shaping you as a theatre student. And I believe nothing shapes us more than theatre history. So it's a survey of theatre history. We go from Greek to absurdism. I love absurdism so fun with teenagers. And so we do Greek and then we do Commedia. We do, um, uh, Everwman, we always read a play and then they get to choose how they respond in theatre too. They can do a performance for it. They can do a tech project for it, they can write something. So it's a survey of theatre history. They read tons of scripts and then they find their sweet spot in theatre. And then theatre three, four is my advanced class. I have three theatre, one classes two theatre two classes and then one class of theatre three-four together. And that is, theatre three-four, is to perfect you as a theatre student, not that you're going to be perfect at the end, but we're going to produce plays, perform, and do projects. And it's a very, it's an honors level class. So it is very much a choose your own adventure and a row your own boat to class. So that is, yeah, I love alliteration. Can you tell?
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I love it.
LEA MARSHALL:
I love alliteration. Yeah. I just made my a little flyer for next year with that. A little trifold thing for, for my uh, for kids who are interested in looking at which, you know, what are they going to do next year.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Well, my final two questions for you are, The first one is what is a resource that you're currently using that we all need to know about?
LEA MARSHALL:
Vodka. No, just kidding. Kidding. A caffeine. Caffeine is a resource I'm currently using. I will say let and I, let me just tell you that, uh, again, like the doors that opened at the right time, you know, if you walk through it, there will be someone there. If you build it, they will come. Drama Teacher Academy. I cannot tell you that came about it just the right time and I believe it's because uh, Lindsay and Craig saw me down in Florida all the way from Canada and they went, she doesn't know what she is doing and so we're going to have this whole drama teacher academy and we are going to help Lea Marshall. It's really, it is a grand ploy to help me and they've made me feel really great. Um, I've written a couple of units for them. Um an absurdism unit, which is still one of my favorite ones. And teachers seem to love that because it's absurdism and, but I tell you what, I do not know the, everything I've learned about being a drama teacher I learned a drama teacher academy right there. It is an incredible resource and I watch those units. I almost, all of my stuff comes from Drama Teacher Academy. Either I have written it and put it on Drama Teacher Academy or yeah, if I wrote it myself, it's on there. If I'm teaching it, it's not, um, or if it's something new, it'll be on there soon. But that is an incredible resource. And the Facebook group, oh my gosh. Like I'll put up something like, Hey, I want to kill my entire cast. Or, you know, does anyone else want to kill their cast three weeks out asking for a friend and the responses you get and just to realize you're not in it alone and that everybody has those moments is just, it's great. It's really great. And the feedback on things, nobody is judgmental or they haven't been to me and they should be about you don't know about this. And so it's really great Drama Teacher Academy has saved my life many, many of long night. Uh, when I needed something to do the next day and vodka and vodka,
JIMMY CHRISMON:
So Lea, what are your parting words of wisdom for new teachers going into theatre education?
LEA MARSHALL:
I would say especially if you were a new teacher like me that doesn't know, you don't know anything, choose something every year. And I actually gave this advice on Drama Teacher Academy once and it's still good advice really, choose one thing to major in every year, especially if you don't, if you're not an excellent at tech or whatever. I one year I chose set design and I just like learned the heck out of how to design a set. And then the next year, you don't need to know that anymore. I mean, you need to know it, but you don't need to study it anymore. You just apply what you've learned to your set design and that year learn something different. Learn costume design, you know, learn, uh, figuring out what your thing every year, maybe one year you decide to learn, you know, theatre history. If you're not great at that, you know, learn theatre history, really kind of major on it that year. And then the next year it can kind of take a back seat and just inform everything else that you do. So just, you know, just keep applying it up, up that ladder as you go. Um, and then also I think we as theatre teachers need to look at how we do this job. And you're, um, I tell you the podcast you did with your mentor, the one that's retired now, what was her name?
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Barbara, Barbara Mager.
LEA MARSHALL:
Was, Barbara, where she talked about that friend that said, don't stay up there all night. Go home. We've got to figure out a way to do this job for the long run and in a way that, what can we say yes, when do you say yes and when do you say no and what's valuable and what's just staying up? You know, I see so many teachers, theatre teachers up at the schools, you know, 12, 14, 16 hours a day and yes, it's going to take that around showtime, but it should not take that every week of the school year. You cannot, I can't man listen, if you can maintain that, okay great. But really you shouldn't be. At at age 51 I cannot maintain that. And, and people with children, we've got to figure out a way and help each other so that we can put on quality, educational shows that don't kill us mentally, emotionally, socially, and kill your family life. So I think that's something that we've just got to start talking about and figuring out how to do that and do excellent work. That doesn't kill us.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Those are great words that I'm still learning how to do so.
LEA MARSHALL:
I know, I think we all, I think it's just going to be an ongoing process and it's different for each of us. It's different for a new teacher because you do put in more hours when you're a new teacher and then you can kind of, and then you can kind of go, okay, I don't, you know what, I try and my set design is not as complicated now because I know how long it takes to paint those stupid sets and, and if, and if you don't have parent help, it's a lot different. I don't have a ton right now. I let my students do a lot. I let them do a lot more now because you trust them. You do get to where you can trust the students and put responsibility on them and they take ownership and it is a really beautiful thing when they, they do that and you can back up a little bit. I, in fact, in the fall I was hospitalized. Let me just take my own advice here. I had to be rushed to the emergency room after the night one and I had night two of my show, um, it was student directed. Um, it was a response to a surgery that I had to, had to have a lumpectomy earlier and I just had not recovered well from it. And my students were like Snapchatting each other, like how many Ginger Ales I'd drunk. And they're like, I don't think she's well, somebody tell her husband. They had to take me to the hospital, not my students, but my husband did. And they had to run the show all by themselves the next night and strike the set alone. And guess what? They did it. They totally did it. I mean I got one teacher that came up to count the money cause you know, they can't do that. My husband was there on hand and I had a friend that went, but yet they did it all by themselves. So I think so many times we just aren't letting them do it and we need to take a step back and let them do it. And they will do it and soar. And that's what they're going to remember is remember when we did that show without mixed martial? Oh my gosh. And there's, they were so proud of themselves for doing that.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
But, and I have to give you credit for that because you, taught them, you, you gave them that opportunity, you gave them the agency to be able to do that. That's a testament to what you're doing in your classroom. And I appreciate what you're doing down there
LEA MARSHALL:
Well, most of the time it's because they know better than me. Anyways,
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Well, Lea, thank you so much for talking with me. I really appreciate it. I want to fly down to Tallahassee right now and just have dinner with you and chat some more.
LEA MARSHALL:
Anytime. Anytime.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I definitely want to have you back on cause I've just really enjoyed talking with you
LEA MARSHALL:
When I learn a little bit more. Let me convince you to actually take a theatre education program lady. Okay, that's fine.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
No, I am very grateful for your words and I know my students are really gonna enjoy this one too, and I hope other people can gather some, some great insight and some, some new, some new things to put in their toolbox.
LEA MARSHALL:
Well, and please, people can check out my website. My students rarely do. But, um, it's leontheatre.com and it's not, people think it's my name Lea on theatre. It's not the name of my school, l e o n theatre. And you can spell theatre with an RE like us snobs do or or an ER. My husband, my husband gave me that as a Christmas gift is those web addresses on year. It is done by Squarespace, which is a great platform. You do have to pay for it, but they make it look very, very nice. And so they do a really good job with that. And so my, that's a gift to me was my husband did that. But it's it and please you can, you know, look through there if there's anything you need from there, you know, let me know. And I think most of the stuff you could just go and look at and kind of see what we're doing in each of the grade lev, in each of my levels and everything and steal whatever you want because I stole it from someone else.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
I can attest that your your husband's gift to you as a gift to all of us because I'm in love with it. I, I'm already pulling things off of it and stealing and telling my students to come do that. So thank you for that. And I'm sure people will check that out. So hopefully you'll see a spike in your website traffic.
LEA MARSHALL:
It will make me feel like the kids are looking at it. Our hashtag for our thespian troupe is if they ask me something that's on the website, I'm like, hashtag check the website, my phone auto corrects to hashtag check the website if they text me. If it is on that website, I am not telling you about it. You've got to do it. Hashtag check the website. And so you'll actually see that on anything I ever get with our Leon Theatre logo on it. On the bottom it says hashtag check the website because I tell them go check the website. It's on there. When's the date of this Hashtag, they'll be like, uh, check the website.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Well thank you again for joining us. I look forward to talking with you again in the future.
LEA MARSHALL:
All right, thank you.
JIMMY CHRISMON:
Thank you. I hope you had as much fun listening to that as I did recording it. Lea was an absolute joy to talk to you and I do hope to have her back on the show. Some of the things she said really made me think and to make, made me examine a little bit of what I'm doing in my classroom and at the college level. And I think I'm going to try some things and I hope my students got a lot out of it. And uh, I hope you did too. If you have any comments, if you have any suggestions for the show, please reach out to me on email at thedtalkspodcast@gmail.com. I always welcome the feedback. I'm always looking to strengthen the podcast and make it something that's useful to you out there. Those of you who are teaching and those of you who are studying to be teachers in theatre, so please reach out to me. Let me know what you're thinking if you want to be a guest on the show. I'm also very interested in speaking with you about that. You can visit our website at www.thedtalks.com where you can find our archives as well as the transcripts of the show. Please go on any of your favorite podcast providers, Apple Podcasts on iTunes, Google Podcast on Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Anypod, and Tunein and you can also find us on Youtube. Just look for THED Talks. Please go on, subscribe to the show, rate it, give us some stars, review it. Tell us what you're liking as well as share it with those people out there that you think could benefit from what I'm doing here on THED Talks. You can find us on Twitter @theatreEdtalks, Tumblr THEDtalks.tumblr.com on Facebook at THED Talks and on Instagram @thedtalkspodcast. Thank you so much for listening this week. I can't wait to bring you next week's episode. Thank you Joel Hamlin and Joshua Shusterman for the use of your song Magnetize. I appreciate you guys doing that. Thank you so much for joining us this week and I look forward to talking with you next week.
