2.05 A Conversation with Mel Edwards
This week Jimmy talks to Texas technical theatre teacher Mel Edwards! She discusses her journey to teaching theatre, engaging lessons, and her experiences being a woman in a male dominated field. He also catches up with his student teacher Emma and how things are going in her placement!
Mel’s Recommended Resources
Facebook groups (Texas Theatre Exchange, Technical Theatre Educators, Shear Madness: The Joy of Impractical Costuming)
Jimmy Chrismon:
Hello everyone. This is season two, episode five, the THED Talks. I'm your host, Jimmy Chrismon. Welcome to THED talks podcast for theatre teachers and theatre education students. For each week I bring new stories and interviews from experienced K-12 theatre teachers, current theatre education majors and professors of theatre education that will warm your heart, renew your faith in teaching and provide you plenty of resources to better your practice in your theatre classroom. Thanks so much for checking out our latest episode. I'm excited to bring this interview to you today. It is an interview with tech theatre teacher, Mel Edwards. She is a tech theatre teacher at Rouse high school in Leander, Texas. In my conversation with Mel, she talked about her, her experiences that led her to where she is , um, giving her kids total agency of, of running things and, and giving them the tools, literally the tools, but also figuratively the tools to be able to be successful and, and run the theatre department as a little theatre company. Um, I also really appreciated the, the conversation that she had with me , uh, regarding being a woman in a male dominated field, particularly with tech theatre and what we're doing. And I'm also addressing the fact that she is a Hispanic woman and in the times that we're living right now and what that means for her students. So I hope you enjoy this conversation. This is the part three of my tech theatre unit . So here's my conversation with Mel Edwards . Well, I want to welcome my next guest at THED talks. This is Mel Edwards. She is a high school technical director in Texas. She's been at Belton high school for six years and next year we'll be starting at a new school, Rouse high school in Leander. Um , so Mel, why don't you introduce, introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about , um, where you've been teaching and, and kind of what you do and , uh, just to kind of give us the little backstory leading up to where you are now.
Mel Edwards:
Um, okay. Um, I had been teaching high school for six years. Um, I was at Belton high school. Um, and that has been the only school that I've been to. I recently decided to take a job at Rouse high school in Leander and that's where I'll be starting my seventh year teaching. Um, how I got started into teaching. Actually I have alternative certification , uh, in theatre. Um, I actually went to college for veterinary medicine. Uh, and then I decided that that wasn't the route that I really wanted to take. Um, and I didn't do theatre in high school. I was actually a band nerd in high school and I was a, yeah, my, my high school did not have a very good theatre program. It was mainly an afterschool program that was taken, you know , uh , the art teacher would do after school . Well, I think when you're the art teacher, the next two years was like a history teacher and then the last year was like an English teacher or something like that. So it was definitely just after school with no theatre in the class. Um, and so I just did, I did this , I did band, but I did take shop in high school, which I think led to what I do now. Uh , when I went to college, I was like, I want to be a veterinarian. And I went through all these classes and sciences and all kinds of crazy stuff and my junior year , um, some stuff happened with my advisor. I kept having a new advisor every year. And , uh, my advisor was like, well, when are you going to pick a major? And I was like, I don't have to take a major. And she's like, yeah, you know, you have all these classes but you have to graduate with something. And I was like, I , no one told me this. And so after like researching, it was , wasn't taking like another five years to finish with a biology degree or another like four years for a chemistry degree and on the one . And , um, I had been working for three years or four years at the PAC on campus. Um, I went to the University of Texas at Austin. And so I was in the PAC and I got the job there because I knew how to use power tools from my shop class in high school. And so I was doing that and I was super stressed out and everybody there was like, well, why don't you like do this for a living? Like you're pretty good at building things and , um, you can do this. And I was like, I can do this for a living? This is so much fun. And so I switched my majors and I was in school for another two years and all I did was take just theatre and technical theatre classes. And then I graduated. Um, I went and I moved to DC for awhile and I was one of three carpenters at the studio theatre in DC and I love every minute of it . It was super fun. Um, I loved it and, but I really, really missed Texas. So I came back to Texas. My family's from here and I got a job in Austin. But , um, the community theatre in Austin is very small and a lot of technical directors or people that build sets. Um, they, they kinda hold onto those jobs forever. And so I can work as overhire . And Austin has a really big music scene. And so if I wanted to do lighting, there's a , there's a ton of lighting jobs, right? Cause music and venues and stuff like that. But as far as like building sets , it's very limited. And so I actually took a job building cabinets and furniture at a shop in Austin. Um, and then after working there for awhile , my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, was like, Hey, you know, why don't you think about doing something to get your degree? And I said, okay . And he said , well , why don't you teach? Well , technical theatre, wasn't really a thing that when or technical theatre in high school isn't a anything . When I graduated college now it's huge. And you know, people have their own classes, our schools have little classes and stuff like that. And so I was like, well, I think, I think I can do this. So I got my certification, I applied at Belton and I was there for six years. And that's kind of, that's kind of where I'm at.
Jimmy Chrismon:
At Belton . Where you were technical theatre classes, the only thing you taught?
Mel Edwards:
Yes, we, that was the only thing I taught and before me, there was not a technical director there. It was just a one director. And Belton is actually a six A high school. Um, and so it's the biggest of the conferences. It used to be a five A and then went up to six A, and it was just , just one director for a really long time. And then they hired just a technical director, which was me. And so I kind of started the program there.
Jimmy Chrismon:
Tell me about the classes that you taught and what other, what other duties you may have had on top of just, just your on top of your teaching load.
Mel Edwards:
Yeah. Um, so part of my job when I was hired was I had to maintenance the PAC and also tech it, so teching. We call it teching events. And it's basically if there's a junior meeting or a class meeting, I have to go in there and set the projector up and set some mics up or is there an outside group that runs our facility? I have to be that, open the doors and make sure that stuff is there. So I kind of, I don't really, I guess I manage the events, I don't schedule them, but I just tech them. And uh, so part of my job is that, so I , it's half maintenance, half teaching. So I actually only teach an advanced tech class , which is tech two through four and then some tech, two tech one classes, and then the rest of my day. Oh. And I also co-teach our , we call it our varsity theatre group, which is our group that we use for a one act. And some people call it production production classes. Um, we call it varsity.
Jimmy Chrismon:
Awesome. Um , and I know you, you , you share with me in your email when you reached out to me about your students, you teach them to do it all. Um, and from what you've told me, you're also a kind of a Jack of all trades. Um, I know you said your , um, scenic carpentry , um, is where your main background is, but you also sew, and you just pretty much do it all. So , um, I know several of the teachers that I've talked to have, have the philosophy of teaching their students to do it and , and, or run things , um, like a little theatre company. And so can you tell me about your process and how you get your students to that point?
Mel Edwards:
So I am, okay. So I kind of start off with my kids and I tell them, look, whenever we have our first company meeting and I meet my crew kids and some of them I know some, I don't know, but this is what I tell them and I'm very honest. I'm like, I don't need your help to do this show. I can do this show all by myself. I can build all the costumes and I can build all the scenery. And so I don't need your help. I want your help. I want you to be a part of this process and we're going to have fun. And so they're like, okay, cool. They're kind of like a little bit put off by it or they're kind of like , they don't know what to think. But after a while they kind of see that I know what I'm talking about, right. And I know how to do all this other stuff. And so they just, they just want to learn. They see it and they see me doing it and they're like, well , teach me how to do that. So when , so I'm very patient with my kids and I think, I think you have to learn to always have a plan B. So I'll tell a kid, Hey, I need you to figure out what the vintage microphone is supposed to look like. And they're like, well how do, how do I do that? And so you have a phone and they're like, yeah, I have a phone. It's a YouTube it, Google it. Show me a picture of what you want it to look like. And then they're like, okay, cool. I'll do it . I'll be back. I'll be back in 10 minutes and see where you at.
Speaker 5:
And they're like, okay , in those 10 minutes I'm already thinking, okay, if this kid really messes it up. How am I going to save whose project is this kid can't do it. And then I'll come back and you know, nine out of 10, nine they've got a plan. They just need help kind of executing it. So I really just throw my kids to a Wolves. Um , same thing too with tools. Whenever we're building sets and stuff , I'm like, Hey, have you ever used the jigsaw? And they're like, no, I don't know that it is cool. It's that yellow thing over there. All right, I'm not sure how you use it, blah blah blah. This and this . Watch where your fingers are. Make sure you have 10 fingers when you leave this project is this news , whatever. Okay, I'm leaving. I'll be back. And I just leave them like, and I watched them for a little bit, but I kind of like, I definitely let them do it.
Mel Edwards:
I don't baby them. I'm not afraid to give them things to do cause they want to do, they want to learn and they want to where we're kind of in this , um, maker movement where everybody wants to be an artist, be an artisan and make things that are homemade and handmade and you know, make a name for themselves, crafting. And I think these kids like technical theatre is I think the perfect place for some of these kids and for kind of where they're at in society right now. Um, but yeah, and so I kind of train them and, and my, whenever we do crew after school, it's kinda chaotic because I'll spend like five, 10 minutes instructions , giving instructions to set. Then I'll like run across the PAC where the costume people are standing or sitting. And then I'll give them like 10, 15 minutes of instruction and direction. And then I'll run around and I'll try and find prop people and then I'll try and find the people that are pulling costumes and then I'll come back to set. And then I'll go and check in the booth for the sound people. And I'm literally just running around. And so there's not really a whole lot of time for me to do it all. And so my kids know because I have to check up all these areas that they have to be self sufficient. L ike they get it, they're like, Oh, she's busy as cool. I won't ask her, I'll just Google it first and then I'll ask her if I can do it.
Jimmy Chrismon:
Well, I love, one of my favorite things that I love when I taught my tech theatre classes when I was still in the classroom was , um, that like the, the kids who are absolutely terrified to even touch the tools. Um, and I'm like, not today, this is what we're doing today. You're, we're, we're gonna, we're gonna use the drill. We're gonna, we're gonna, you know, use the jigsaw, we're gonna this is going to happen. So , um, and then, and teaching them and them being so comfortable with it in class. And then I would always make my tech class come to our , um, like all company, set nights or , or tech nights that we would have before the big show where we do all the fine , finish everything and do all the finishing touches and, and so like the cast would be there and of course they're , they've never touched the jigsaw. Um, and I could look over and it's like, Hey, Julie, go take little Bobby over there and teach them how to use this and you all finish off this piece. And Julie's like, yeah, I got this. Let's go. Um , so that was always really cool for me to see , um , kind of how their confidence grew with it and, and they're , um, that they, that they trusted themselves eventually and , and they knew that I trusted them as well. So , um , I appreciate, appreciate what you do with your kids with that.
Mel Edwards:
Well, and I think also , um, as like my first year, nobody kind of knew how to do anything. We had this one kid , uh, who, he was the stage manager and he was a set builder. Like he, he was also an Eagle scout and so he already knew how to do all of those things. But he every , like we all , the director always relied on him to do it. And then he was a senior that year. And I'm like, what are you going to do when he leaves? You haven't trained anybody else? Like nobody else knew how to do anything. But over the years, as I've trained them , like they have trained other kids and so kind of self perpetuate and they train each other. And, and, and I, I don't know how common it is, but I do, I've heard a couple of stories. Um, when you go to conferences and stuff like that, that sometimes directors are afraid to give their kids like tools, right? And , and they're afraid to , and even like some middle school teachers are afraid to give their middle schoolers hot glue gun. And I'm like, well, I mean, I can understand they can burn this up , but at some point you have to just empower them and you just have to be like, you , you, you need to do this.
Jimmy Chrismon:
Well how , um, how do you, how do you go about teaching , uh , the safety , uh, components in your classes? Cause I know that's extremely, especially with tech theatre, so , um, what, how do you go about doing that in order to give them that agency to go to go on and continue to learn and do more?
Mel Edwards:
Okay. So I laugh because I, I have a very dark sense of humor and I'm very sarcastic and I'm very blunt. And so the way I teach my kids safety is I show them every video I could possibly find about like what about accidents that happen. Um, and uh, so I say , you know, I think for me it's like if I have full disclosure with my kids and I say, this will happen, this is your, your finger will get cut off. Yes. It will get cut off. And this is what it looks like when your finger heals after it's been cut off. Right. Or something. And , and I don't show like graphics stuff, but , uh , uh , an example is , um , chop saw, right? I'll stop. Everyone's using the types of table saws cause they're should knowledge . And stuff like that. They have a really good video on the Toughbook stories on people who have had accidents and have lost fingers when, when they were using a regular table. So they're like , um , survivor stories I guess you could say. And so I show them this video and you know, they're just like, Oh my God, like the table saw is, dangerous. I said, yeah, it is dangerous. Like all of these tools you have to respect, you have to respect them, they can cause harm. And um , when I talk about the band saw , I tell them, you know, the band saw was used for cutting meat in slaughterhouses and all that stuff. Like it will cut your finger easily, no big deal. And they're like. So kind of in a way, kind of installing a little bit of fear in a weird way, I'm kind of makes them more aware of what they're doing. Cause you know, you know, boy, everything's a sword, right? Like a piece of pipe is a sword. A piece of wood is a sword, like everything a sword. And so I think just kind of giving them full disclosure and just telling them like, this is dangerous and this is why, and this is what happened. Kind of gives them a little bit more of an awareness and they do it with all tools, like with the pneumatic , you know, a stapler with hammers. Like I , I just give them everything. Like these are these the , what could go wrong.
Jimmy Chrismon:
All right . Um, I want to shift gears just for , uh, for a moment and, and , uh , just address the elephant that people may be seeing in the room right now is that , that you are a woman , um , a female tech director and that's very rare and I think that's fantastic. Um, I , I have talked quite a bit in the last , uh , few months about representation of, of teachers of color in the classroom of , um, LGBT issues. Um, and I, I also think, and I specifically work with my students on , um, uh , gender representation in the classroom. Um, so can you, can you share a little bit about your , your experience with that? Because I think that's fantastic. And I wish there were more of you , um, out there, so
Mel Edwards:
okay. Um, that , well, yes, that one. I'm female, right? Two, I'm a minority. I'm Hispanic. Uh , so I got all that cool stuff going for me, whatever. Right? Um, I have never really faced discrimination in my job, which is, which is good. Um, I have faced kind of more doubt. So I walk in there , I'm very short. Um, I'm a small person and so sometimes people are like, well, you can do this, you can do that. And, and sometimes it's more just kind of a disbelief and a doubt more than more than a discrimination, you know, it's never hostile, but it's, yeah. Unbelievable. I guess sometimes to a point. Um , in the classroom, the best thing that I, that I love happens is when we're learning how to use the impact. And I tell them , these groups of boys are like, Hey, here, I want you to use this impact. I want you to drive this screw into these two, two by fours for practice. They can't get it in and get , it's like a three inch screw. And I purposely like do the biggest one I have and they get halfway and they're like, miss , I can't do this . I can't, doesn't mean it doesn't want to go, didn't want to put stuff . And I'm like, okay, cool. Give me the impact and I take the impact and I drive it all the way through. And they were like, Oh, you got schooled, you got, it's so funny because like, they think that because I'm a woman, like I can't do it right. And they're boys and they can do it and then they can't do what . We can't do it. You can't do it. And then I kind of show them up. Um , and it's kind of fun. Um, I am very much, I'm not a hardcore feminist, but I am kind of a , um, I can do anything better than you type of mentality. Um , because I have to , um, I feel like I have to prove myself more than a man twice my size, like out of, at a job interview or something. And so I definitely walk a little straighter and my head's a little higher. Um, but I think, I think it really helps that I am a female in my program because I, I firmly believe that in order to empower your students, you need to empower yourself. And I think that I think women see, or like other female students and they see that I can do all these things and they're like, Oh, this is amazing. Like I can do those things too. Um , so.
Jimmy Chrismon:
When , uh, when I was in the classroom, I never had, I never had trouble getting boys in my program. Um, I am a nontechnical theatre person. I've fully admit that what I have learned, I have learned on my own and I think I have good ideas, but I don't have all the know how to make it all happen. Um, but I never had, I never had challenges getting boys to audition for my shows. Um, whereas I noticed a lot of my , uh , female colleagues , um, would tell me they would and they said that I probably have an easier time because the boys see me and they're like, Oh, I can do theatre too. That's, that's cool. Um, have you, have you seen that as far as with your, with your female students. Um, do you, do you have a , do you have quite a few female students in your tech program?
Mel Edwards:
Actually, I do. And that's a good point to bring up. When I first started , um, at Belton, our program was pretty much all boys. Um, and right now, like I think last this past year in our musical and musicals , our biggest event and our musical, I think out of like 60 crew members, we only had, well, so let's say, let's say set members, set crew members. We only had two boys and all the rest were all girls . And we had about 12 tech crew people. And so our program, my tech program is more girls right now than it is boys. And I don't think it , it has to deal with like, Oh, you're a female and you're empowered , you know, whatever. I think, I think our program in general, we got a new director went two years ago and I think our program in general kind of shifted and you know, we started, there's always going to be more girls in theatre than boys. Um, as far as acting, right, like you can always find girl parts, or more female parts. And so , um , it was just having these boys that needed to be somewhere. I attract like other girls to want to do what I want to do. But I also attract boys because even though they're boys and they , they see me pick up a giant 4x8 platform, they're like, if she can do it, I can do it. And so, you know, boys always have the, I guess the machismo, like, yeah, let's go pick up heavy things. And so , um , whereas, so there's no like, can't do attitude in my program because of that. Like, if I can do it, you can do it. I'm a girl, you're a guy, you're stronger than me. You can do it. And if you're a girl, you're a girl, a girl, we can both do it. So I kind of worked both ways, but my program is definitely more girls Than boys at the moment,
Jimmy Chrismon:
which I think is, is not that. I think the representation of you as a, as a female teacher in that position is good for the girls. I think it's also good for the boys. Um, and, and kind of putting some of those, those thoughts in check , uh, and , and, and checking what they , uh, kind of what their, their norm is and what their , what their , they've always thought and, and challenging that and changing that. So good for you. I appreciate it.
Mel Edwards:
Thank you. Um, I also will say we talk a lot about set construction, all that stuff , but my best sewers are boys. Uh , I've had some, they find me, they find me a lot when , especially in class now I'm wearing a , but I have a lot of boys that sometimes say, Oh, I know how to sew . I already know how to hand sew. I sew with my grandma. Oh really? Sew with your ground ? Yeah, I sew with my grandma, and I always try and relate the to like things that they like. So I talk about the automotive industry where you know how to, so you can upholstery cars upholstery cars and you get paid a lot of money for custom stuff like that. And I try to talk to them about like leather work and like , you know, I try, I try and talk about sewing in a more masculine environment as opposed to costumes. And I have boys that end up loving it and they're like, Oh, it's like a, it's like driving a car. Yeah, it's like using a bandsaw . Right? You're still, you're kind of controlling the fabric. So I just try and relate it to them in, like I said, a more masculine environment and then it works. And like I said, most of my best sewers are boys.
Jimmy Chrismon:
That's just good teaching though. I mean, and taking, taking what you're doing and relating it to their real lives. And that's , that's important because if they can see a need for it outside of what they're just doing with you, then, I mean, you've taught them not just skills for what you're doing in your class with theatre, but you've taught them life skills too . Um, and they may not realize that at the moment, but down the road they're like, Oh, I remember Ms. Edwards taught me that. I do. Yeah.
Mel Edwards:
Yeah. I had a, I had a kid who went off to the military and he sent me a message . Yeah . I mean this was maybe like five years ago. Um, he wanted to military and he like sent , you know, sent me a message back and said, you know, Hey, thanks for teaching me how to go . Like I still all my military patches onto my uniform, myself and I've even gotten paid to, sew my friend's touches on them too . They're like uniforms and festival thing . Cause I was like, yeah.
Jimmy Chrismon:
Um, what are your, what are some of the favorite, like maybe your top two or three lessons that you teach that you , uh , you might, could share with us? Like the abridged version of.
Mel Edwards:
Um, I think my favorite, one of my favorite projects to teach is my Foley sound project. Uh, I teaching sound design is really difficult, I think for a lot of people because they don't understand it. And I'm not a sound person. I don't, if you tell me like, Hey, here's an amp, here's a microphone connected. I'd be like, ah , let me YouTube this. Right? But , uh , sound is just really hard for a lot of people to teach. So I teach a Foley sound instead . Um , I made a couple of props and made my own wind machine, my own little [inaudible] for that like opens and closes and has so, or locks on it to make noises and made my own thunder tube. So I made a couple of props and stuff. But basically what I do with these kids is I say, Hey, I want you to find a comic book and , uh, I want you to cut the comic book up into slides, and then you're going to have to create a sound to go with that comic book.
Speaker 5:
So as a , if Batman punches Robin , you need to find a punch you to make a punch sound right. And so these kids perform it live. So I got the idea from the comic book called T B intergalactic nemesis and they have a cool YouTube and it's basically like an original comic books and you can see it performed live on stage. And I've seen it live too . And to have voices for all the characters in the thing and they have like a live pianist making music, you know, it's like alive fully fountain . It's like the coolest thing. And so I have kids that do a Spiderman one, a Watchman comic, and it's just fun watching them perform and they're like reading these comic strips and they're like banging on things and it kind of makes the story come alive. That's my Foley project.
Mel Edwards:
Um, and then my other project is my scenic painting project , which I do with my advanced kids. My advanced kids. Um, they take a vintage poster and they learn to grid it up to like a giant, I mean, a bigger size. It's about two feet tall and then they have to grid out the paper and enlarge it and has to like match all of these colors to the poster and then they have to like recreate it and paint it uh , 10 years . I use a bamboo stick, which they totally hate. And then other years I just say, okay cool. Just draw it because I, you know, I need you to teach . Like some of these kids, I haven't, tech class don't take art. Some of them are really are already artistically inclined, but in art is where you learn those drawing skills. And so I try and kind of combine it all to one all into one and have them both draw and paint at the same time.
Jimmy Chrismon:
That's really cool. That's really cool. And your Foley project what a way to get your , uh, your, your tech kids to, to act as well. Cause a lot of my tech kids were the ones who were like, I am terrified to act. I'm not doing it. I'll build things for you all day, but I'm not acting. And then that's just, that's a really cool way to, to kind of bridge that gap for them. Um, how,
Mel Edwards:
yeah , I'm sorry. They kind of forget that they're acting cause so then they're just reading, they're just reading off the thing. And I , I have a lot of [inaudible] actor kids that also take tech. And so if they are willing to make the voice, make the character voice, like it kind of breaks the ice for the non-tech kids because they're like, Oh, he's having fun. I can have.
Jimmy Chrismon:
That's really cool. How do you, cause I have experienced not in my program because I, I was very adamant about creating a culture where , um, the technicians and the actors were , um, equal , um, and we couldn't do the show or do anything that we were doing without each other. Um, have you run into anything , uh, with having to, I don't know, maybe distinguish or , uh , get rid of a culture of the us versus them mentality with techies versus actors or , um , how do you go about creating that culture where everyone is respected?
Mel Edwards:
Well when I first started, it was definitely , um , actors definitely saw that technicians, there was a divide and a lot of the times they would, say Hey , um , I didn't, Oh, I say, Hey, I need you to move this box over there to the side of the room. And they would move the box and he was in the wrong spot or something. Hey I asked you to move this box, like, Oh yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not a techie. I do n't, I don't know wh ere. And I'm like, being a te chie d oesn't have anything to do with putting the box in the right spot. Like so. So I think ov er t he, I just see everybody equal. And that's the thing, like fo r m usical, they're all musical kids. Like, I don't care if yo u c o me f r om q ualifier athletics or you're an actor or you're the musical kid, right? Everyone's a musical kid and into the fall show when everyone's a fall show kid. And I think we, me and the director really try hard to include everyone and to teach even actors like skills because we believe in being a well rounded person. And trying to make our kids be good people. And um, when it comes around to who I think the first two, two years, I had to have quite a few company meetings and I, I would sit down and I would tell them like, you know, I'll tell the actors, I was like, well, you cannot leave your costume on the floor. Um, Susie has been working on it all week. Um, and you know, for you to just leave it on the floor after rehearsal, like that's unacceptable because that's time and effort that she put, I said that if you're not going to take care of it and you can make your own car , you know. And so I definitely dropped the hammer and because we're always in the same spot, like when we build and sew and stuff, we are also, we are sewing and building onstage at the same time as the actors are blocking and rehearsing on stage. And so when they're off stage, they kind of like poke into the classroom room where they poke into the shop , knows what are you doing, what are you doing? And Oh, we're... Oh, that's so cool. And so they physically can see the work that the other kids are putting in and they just have a completely different respect. And I think, I don't know how it works in other programs, but if actors see the work that's happening, I think they have a greater appreciation for it. That, and we also have like tech days. So tech days is just like everyone. Yeah . Mandatory. Everyone comes in, everyone help . When we strike, we strike, everyone stays for strike actors, students, I mean actors crew, everybody stays for strikes and you just pick up the hammer and I don't care if like you're near the trash runner, but everyone stays and everyone helps. And I think having those tech days to kind of, I hate to say the word force, but force actors to kind of help , um , helps them see a different side of this . [inaudible]
Jimmy Chrismon:
yeah, I appreciate that. I, my, my daughter , uh, attempted to get involved in her drama program at her school this past school year. Um, and she came home the first few times really dismayed. And finally I got her to talk about it. Uh , cause I, I didn't want to be that theatre dad trying to inter interject himself into what they're doing with their theatre program at her school. But she , uh, she said that it's very much this, the techies hate the actors and the actors hate the techies and I, I'm not about that life. She said, I don't, I don't want to hate anyone. I don't want to go into this toxic place anymore. So she quit going and kind of broke my heart. Cause like that's, that's not what theatre 's about. That's not what this whole ensemble and ensemble extends beyond actors. Uh, that's not what that's about. So I appreciate hearing hearing how you do that and I'm sure some other teachers would, would love to hear that too. Um, do you have any, any tech theatre tips or tricks for us? Non tech theatre people that you can give us some, some easy fixes to some things that may come up?
Mel Edwards:
Um, for me, whenever I think that the tech, the tip for me is to learn as much as you possibly can about everything. For me. When I come and I hit a wall or I hit a problem, chances are I'm going to YouTube it and somebody out there has made oddly a tutorial or something similar , uh, to fixing it. Um, I pull from a lot of techniques and ideas from different places. So I pull from a block printing ideas for wallpaper, which is like an art thing I pull , um , okay . Some corset making ideas from, you know , costume from, from historical reenactment people, right . That has tips and tricks about stuff like that. Um, I think as far as, I guess just any tech tips , um, everything's a prop , uh, I kinda like horde a lot of , uh , materials and stuff because I always look at the potential of a product, right? Like that, that box right now it's a box, but it , it doesn't need to be a box in a, in a , in a show. Um, so I think for me it's just look at different, look at different areas of, or different industries , um , that are still, that are artistic and creative when you can find so many different ideas and techniques.
Jimmy Chrismon:
Yeah. I, one of my favorite things to do. I mean, I love going to see theatre and , and we as theatre people, I mean we're , it's beat into us from our undergrad programs to analyze everything. And we rarely just sit and enjoy the show itself. But whenever I go see like a national tour of a show or I go to New York and see something, or I go up to Chicago and see something in the professional houses, I always pay attention to the , the, the lighting looks and the colors that they, that they put together. And , and I remember those combinations to like, how did I feel when I saw this combination? And if I need to recreate that, Hmm , let me go back to that green and purple look really together in that, so let's mix that or, you know, or whatever. Um, but I , I, I think just constantly being that observer as well. Um , taking in what you like, copy it, you know?
Mel Edwards:
Yeah, yeah, totally. Um , I know, so my husband is not a theatre person at all. Like, he actually hates musicals and if he hears this, he probably going to be like, I hate you. Um , but whenever we go and we do see [inaudible] cause he takes them because he loves me. Right? And so we don't, we watch them, but anytime like something flies in or rolls in or moves on, it tells me , goes like, how did he do that? How did he do that? How do they make that? It's like, I don't know. I don't know how to do that, you know? And so, but a part of being the observer is I see something cool on stage and I'm like, how did they do that? And so I will in a way obsessed and I'll come home or , or during the intermission or on the drive home or something, I'm like YouTube, like I did blah, blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Come on stage or behind the scenes of such and such show. And so I become kind of obsessed, like trying to figure out how they did that. And then in going down that rabbit hole, I find all these other videos of all these other random maybe related or unrelated things. And I'm like, Oh cool, Oh yeah, Oh man, I could totally do that in the show next time or you know. And so you'd kind of just, again, being the observer and kind of being obsessed with, with the theatre magic.
Jimmy Chrismon:
Yeah. I, I, I'm going , I'm gonna shift gears a little bit cause as you were talking , um , uh , it made some, some pictures from the your website pop into my mind of your work with your kids. And I, I am obsessed and in love with your , um, your newspaper costume project.
Mel Edwards:
Oh, thanks .
Jimmy Chrismon:
I did, I did something like that. But not to the extent that you did cause the detailed , it's in those, in the work of those kids that they did. I can you talk a little bit about how , how your process of getting them to get that detailed with the work.
Mel Edwards:
Okay. So then you say for costume is, I tell them you're gonna you need to do rendering. So the, the, the prompt is I want you to create a costume for a character. But I want you to, I know, make it the opposite. [inaudible] okay , well, so example , um, what would a Pokemon, look like as a human, like if you made a PikaChu dress, what would that look like? Right? Or if Picachu was a human, well would Picachu look like I'm same thing to , if , you know, what if you dressed up Harley Quinn in the Victorian era? Like what would she wear? You know, like kind of give them like some prompts and I love them, pick whatever they want. Um, but they have, you know, I approve it. I tell them like, give me your ideas and sometimes these kids have these ideas and I'm like, realistically, let's think about how you're going to make that . And they said, okay, maybe not, maybe I'll switch . And so then the switching , but um, they have to create a rendering first, so full rendering, costuming, drawing, coloring, whatever , um , of what their ideas and look like. And then we kind of nitpick it and, and I tell them, you know, think about how you're gonna make that skirt or how are the pleats gonna look? And they're like, okay, cool. Well man, and they actually make their own dress form. So what they do is , um, they pick a sacrificial student that puts on a trash bag and they wrap the student up and duct tape and then we cut them out. And then we like tape the duct tape form back together. That's it with use paper and great stuff. Uh , kind of alternated and layers, let it dry. Um, and then we kind of shave off wherever it , you know, bulge out and we make a stand for it and then they're ready to go. And then they can start applying newspaper , um, to the dress , uh, once that's ready to go. And then I'll just tell them that, you know, paper's kinda like fabric. Um, you're just not using a sewing machine, but you can like tape it together. You can like cut it and splice it and put tape over it. Cause when you paint it , it all looks the same. And they kind of really, really get into it because we all do it in my room. And so they're in groups of like, you know, four or five people, whatever. But they see each other's projects and so they get competitive and to like, Oh you know , Oh man, that's a cool sweet and we can totally, we can totally do this better. So it's kinda like they started getting the mentality like go big or go home. And so then it just, and then it turns into whatever it turns into. And some of these are like really great. Like I would not imagine some of the kids that do this stuff like that, they would come up with a product that they do come up with and I'm like, this is this. And it kind of gets them into thinking about design, you know? And sometimes they have to like cut things and they say like, well this dress or this [inaudible] good sweetheart neckline of such and such just in word because it is , it just, it just looks weird. And so they ended up like redesigning it. But if they redesign it, they have to redraw it and rerender it. So they're rendering at the end of the day has to look exactly [inaudible] you know , pretty darn close to like what they actually made. And so it's about just , there's also kind of gives them like how to make choices, how to make aesthetically pleasing choices and how to deal with those choices.
Jimmy Chrismon:
I think that's a really cool project. So thank you for just kind of sharing that process for me. I would love to hear about one of your favorite stories from your career so far. Um, it can be a funny story, a horror story or one of those meaningful moments that kind of impacted your world.
Mel Edwards:
Okay. I have a funny story. I have two funny stories. Um, I'm really goofy with my kids. I'm in the trenches with my kids. I paint with them I build with them. All that stuff. I don't just bark orders at them. Oh . When we did beauty and the beast a couple years ago we needed to create like a ledge for guest on to like fall and die or whatever off the castle. So a , I was like, well how are we going to do this with them? Oh my friends are like, well, you know, we'll , we put a platform and put like a mattress on top of a platform, kind of hid it. And I'd be like, okay, cool. I was like, well , I don't have money for a mattress. I don't have a mattress, I don't have a clean bed. What do I do? I had a student and she's like, Oh, I have a futon, we can use it. You use the with mattress with a futon. Okay, cool. So she brings it to school with, we're on this platform and the platform is only like , uh , I would say 18 inches lower than the other platform. Right. And so it was hidden so it didn't need to go for, so we did it, whatever. It was cool. And then I was like, well, I should probably test before I let him actually fall and make sure it's okay . So like it's me and mom, my kids , they're like watching me and I was like, I'm going to take one for the team. Okay. Take a deep breath. And I like jumped off. Right. Just like , like if I was falling off a building, like didn't like no feet, right. Just kind of face first. And that mattress was, it was hard. It was a hard mattress, but it definitely must have wind out of me. And I was like, Oh my God, that was rough. Uh , and so we ended up putting more cushion on it. But that first, that first hit was, was definitely a doozy. Uh, and then the second kind of funny thing is , uh , well we , um, we did little shop , we had an Audrey, we built our own Audrey plants . And so our pod four is the one where Audrey and Seymour and everyone kinda dies and gets swallowed. Um, the throat of Audrey was , is kind of on an incline and you would kind of slide in end slide eventually under the stage, so you could like get out, right. And it was all hidden until you can see people kind of get swallowed and leave. So again, I was like, well let's, let's give it a shot. You know, I want to make sure this is safe. So I said I'm going to test this out And so I , I s ee. I wanted, I wanted to dive in for some odd reason. I wanted to dive into A udrey's throat. And so I k ind o f took a b ack. I kinda took two steps back and I jumped for it. That thing was like a slide, right? But it was a slide that was only like two feet long and Oh my God, seriously. But I go head first and I hit the floor and I slid down under the platform a nd I was like goal and done. This was really scary. I 'd s ay granted t hat, you know, none of the actors are g oing t o like run and dive into A udrey c ause that's just not how it works. But definitely w as, w as scary. I've done t hings l ike
Jimmy Chrismon:
what is a , what's a resource? Uh, you, you've given us some great things so far, but is there anything else that's just kind of burning that we need to know about as teachers? That's kind of a must have either for a bookshelf or a bookmark on our internet browser or ,
Mel Edwards:
um, yeah, there's two, well, I mean there's a bunch of Facebook groups, right? And so I know you're located in Illinois, but um, the UIL one act play basic group is really good. Um , it's, it's mostly for Texas teachers cause we have UIL but um, there's a lot of non Texas teachers on there too. They have really good resources. Um, the Texas theatre exchange is another Facebook page and uh, the technical theatre educators Facebook page, I'm part of this costuming Facebook page that I really like. It's called Sheere madness. Uh , the joy of impractical joys of costuming and some of the stuff on there is really cool. Um, I learned about that. I went to a conference in California a couple of years ago called costume college, which is like a hardcore costumes convention, like historic historical cause it's, it's just amazing. If you ever, if you ever decided to go. And so I found out about sheer madness and they always post a lot of cool stuff and I'm always posting questions on there about like, Hey, if I needed to do this and this, what was the, what'd be the best thing ? There's a lot of, again, historical people on there. So if I had a question like, Hey, did a little girls wear , you know, tight s in the 18 hundreds or some weird question , they're like, Oh yeah, and they have all this historical information to be accurate. It's really cool. Um, there are two websites that I go to frequently. Um, one of them is called hauntforum .com like haunt as in Halloween haunt. Um, I get a lot of ideas from the haunt industry and uh , one of the coolest things that I found on that forum is called monster mud. And a lot of people, you've seen a dough, but I have used monster mud to create like a, it's basically like a joint compound paint, a paint mixture until you can get fabric in it. You like squeegee it out. And you draped the fabric and it turned its dries the way it's draped. It looks, it still looks off, it's a lot of people in the haunt industry and use it. Use it for like grim Reaper is out in the lawn and , and it's the coolest kind of thing . But I always look for things in the forum there and I'm not a religious person, but churchstagedesignideas.com. There's another weird one. Um, they do a lot of cool whenever I've kind of stuck with like, well I want that set to be abstract or I don't know them . Oh how can I use, how can I make stained glass or something? I'll go to that website and I kind of just type in stuff. And you know there's these mega churches that just have tons and tons of money and they , they are like cool designs and some of these really cool products and they kind of like detail like how they make these stained glass windows or how they made these liabilities call on their house . You know? And it's really cool. Cool. Cause I guess that you can get some cool , um , ideas. Well I'm using like kind of everyday material.
Jimmy Chrismon:
Well those are great. Thank you. Um, and then my final question for you is what are your parting words of wisdom for new teachers or veteran teachers , uh , in the field right now?
Mel Edwards:
Um , I think, I think for me it's again, learn as much as you can. I don't think, I think right now we live in a day in age where we have knowledge at our fingertips. We have it on our phone. We can Google anything we want. There should never be a reason why you , you can't learn something or you don't know how to do something. Because like I said, you can probably Google it. Um, as far as new teachers, I think something that kind of bothers me as far as new teachers is that , um, when you're in college, you're not really taught how to be a social worker. And I think , um, if you're going start teaching , um, if you're still in college and you're about to graduate. And so like you kind of have to come to the realization that like the world was not perfect and that when you, what are you going to do in the moment that you are hit with a child that needs your help? Like how, how do you as a person handle it professionally? And I think that's, that's something that was never taught to me. And so I was, I was unprepared like my first year emotionally for that kind of stuff. Um , and I think, I think as a first year teacher that you need to, or going into your first year teaching your first job, you need to kind of know that, that you're going to be faced with kids that might be hungry. Kids that are poor, kids that might have poor hygiene, kids that are afraid to come out of the closet to their parents. Like, how are you going to be their champion? How are you going to help them? Um, but it also goes back to I guess backtracking a little bit. Um , you should , if you're going to , if you're going to teach tech, you need to learn to be a lifelong learner. You know, you need to learn to just not stop. Um , and. And again, in order to empower your students, you need to empower yourself.
Jimmy Chrismon:
I think those are great words. I think those were fantastic. And uh, I'll, I'll, I'll add to what you were saying about the being prepared for anything coming at you. Um , and with your kids is being on this end of , of teaching and preparing teachers. There's only so much I can tell you on this end that, you know, I can give you some tips, tips and tricks that you know, very generalized or tell you about my experiences with it. But your experience is going to be very different than mine. And every, every experience that you have is probably going to be different from the last , uh , so you, there's only so much I can teach you, but you have to be present with your kids. You've got to have that relationship with them. And, and, and you've just, you've gotta be prepared and know the right things to put in their hands to empower them and help them. So I appreciate you saying that, I think, I think that's really important. Thank you. Um , well, Mel, thank you so much for talking with me today. I appreciate you reaching out and you're , you're kids are really lucky and , and your program's very lucky to have you. So I appreciate all that you're doing and, and I'm going to keep up with you and, and , and watch all the cool things that you do with your kids. So thank you so much for sharing, sharing your stories with us.
Mel Edwards:
Yeah. Thank you for having me on here.
Jimmy Chrismon:
Thank you Mel Edwards so much for joining me on thed talks. I really appreciate all that you had to offer. For those of you listening, I would encourage you to check out Mel's tech theatre page on Instagram. It's called Rousetech, R. O. U. S. E. T. E. C. H. she is constantly posting pictures of her kids at work and , and all the different uh, exercises and, and projects that she has them do. So I encourage you to check that out. Again, that's Rousetech, R O U S E T, E C H on Instagram. I'm going to turn my attention now to talking with Emma, my student teacher, it's been about two weeks since we've chatted and she's had a lot going on. So I'm excited to hear what her past week has been like and just kind of fill you in on what she's been doing and where she is.
Emma Harmon:
The last two weeks have been the meat of actually teaching. Like there's no like getting to know you left and Scott and David were joking around like this is the week that the students feel free to cry in the classroom or something to that effect. Um, which is actually in some ways been more fun as the student teacher because you get to be like the teacher teacher. Um, cause from the student's perspective they're like, Oh God, we're in school. But from my perspective, it's like, Oh God, like I'm teaching, which has been super fun. Um, so in the past week, it was my first week alone in the classroom. And I feel so lucky to have the group of students that I have because the rapport that I've been able to build with them has been so awesome. And I feel like when I walk into the classroom , um , like even in the progress of one week, like when I walked into the classroom last Friday, I had this exercise plan and it was one that Jianna did, Jimmy, this is hilarious. So , so Jimmy took us to a high school where we all taught mini lessons and one of my classmates taught this lesson that in some ways was really successful. But at the time we were like, okay, this needed be scaffolded in X , Y , Z different ways, right? I'm brilliant. You can tell. But I was like, Oh, this would be great with my acting one students. And I did it and they were all like, this is so hard. And I was like, you know what? This is too hard. I'm so sorry. And , but it turned into a moment of us kind of laughing and they were like, what do you mean? Yeah. So it was really, it was funny, but so then contrasting that with Friday, just yesterday, which was the first day that they went up and they performed eight lines of a monologue by themselves memorized and like just the work that we did over the week to get them there. And the pride that I felt watching them get up and do their first eight lines, which feels so big to them , um , was, was such a big moment for me because the, that like, that pride is , it kind of radiates throughout the room and, and it was such a good way to end the week with them. And I said, thank you for , um, being great this first week and you know, it was, I , you know, I'm sure that the next couple of weeks with them, there will be moments where I'm , you know, make a lot of mistakes because I already have. And, but the cool thing about the classroom is like that doesn't mean that it's a bad classroom where that doesn't mean that I'm a bad teacher and it's just like what happens along the way to what is still ultimately such a fulfilling thing.
Jimmy Chrismon:
What are or what is or multiple lessons that you have learned over the last two weeks for yourself?
Emma Harmon:
I have learned to take care of myself more. You and I have had a couple of conversations about that recently , um, where you have had to remind me to , um , eat like a normal person and sleep even more than a normal person. Um, and something that I was sharing with you is that it's so easy to let my time fall into like the area of gray and that like any moment could be used for work opportunity in any moment. I could be reading a book. bettering my practice or any moment I could be looking up materials for classrooms. Um , like it's, it's all fair game it seems like, but it's ultimately like more, more healthy but more useful for me to place those boundaries on my time. Um, and I never thought that I would have to , okay , go out of my way to make social plans because usually like my planner is just full of coffee dates with random people. But it's been something that like teaching is exhausting and something that I had to learn was like, if you don't force yourself to go out and be a normal person, you go kind of nuts.
Jimmy Chrismon:
Well it's just, I think, I think like you and I have talked about like I even struggle with that sometimes. And that was one of, I mean during, when I was in the classroom, still I, if I had a free weekend, I mean I, I did, I wanted to go see more plays. I wanted to go help this teacher friend out. I wanted to go work on this set. And I , I, there are things I could be doing it at school. I could clean my classroom, I could go do this. And I had a key, a master key I could get in anytime I wanted, but we had to have, I have, we have to learn to protect that time. And we have to, we're worth protecting that time. And we have to see that.
Emma Harmon:
because like when you're a student teacher, you don't have all that time that you've already put in. I feel so eager to put it and like, Oh my gosh, I've been waiting so long to spend my weekends and all these ridiculous ways and this is so exciting and I love the work of being a teacher. Yeah, you're absolutely right.
Jimmy Chrismon:
And you can still love being doing the work of being a teacher, but you'll love it even more when you're , when you are rested, when you feel better because you're eating three meals a day. When you're, you know, you're taking your vitamins and you're drinking your water and you're , you're doing and you're not just living on a cup of coffee five times a day, you know , and you enjoy going to dinner with your friends on a Friday night or eating chicken McNuggets and watching bad TV, you know,
Emma Harmon:
don't expose me.
Jimmy Chrismon:
Well good. I'm glad to hear that you're learning some things. I'm glad to hear things are going well and I'm looking forward to seeing you teach this week cause I loved watching you two weeks ago. I think I talked about, talked about that on the podcast then. But um , you had a great lesson. The kids really love you and , and that's evident. and you love being there so I can't wait to see what else you do.
Emma Harmon:
Can't wait for you to come see it.
Jimmy Chrismon:
Thank you so much to my guests , Emma and Mel Edwards for chatting with me today on the show. I really appreciate that and I hope you got a lot out of that. Thank you for listening and for checking out what we're doing here every week. If you haven't checked out our website yet, you need to do so as www.thedtalks.com. You can find all of our past episodes of the show. You can find the show notes, our archives, our transcripts of the episodes and all of the resources from each of the teachers we've had on the show. You can find how, where to find the podcast if you don't want to. Just listen to it through the website. You can subscribe to our podcasts on any of your favorite podcast providers, Apple Podcasts on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, Anypod. Tunein. Go on your favorite provider, subscribe to the show, rate us, review us and share the what we're doing here with uh, those people theatre teachers and theatre students in your life. Do not forget to submit your questions, your situations and your stories to our new segment, which we'll be introducing soon. It's called. So this just happened. We want to hear from submit your scenarios, your questions and your situations so that we can read them on the show and discuss them with possible responses, solutions, and interventions to your submission. You can submit as many of those as you'd like to have us discuss, but please only submit those topics that do not need immediate attention and are not emergency type questions. If you would like to discuss this with us actually on the show, please be sure to leave your contact information in the form that you can find on thedtalks.com. Just click the link that says, So this just happened and you can fill out the form there and we will get in touch with you. I also want to bring your attention to the Pep talks that are now being featured on all our social media. It's a quick video , uh , where I get to amuse about a particular topic that's on my mind and share those thoughts with you and then interact with you on social media where you give me your thoughts and your, your, your responses to what I've shared. You can find those on all of our social media. We have Twitter @theatreedctalks, Tumblr Thedtalks.tumblr.com find us on Facebook at THED Talks, Instagram thedtalkspodcast and of course our website, www.thedtalks.com. If you'd like to be a guest on the show or if you have an idea for something that we can talk about here on the show or you have some feedback for me, I'd love to hear that. You can email me at thedtalkspodcast@gmail.com and I will respond to all the emails that do come through. So please take advantage of that and I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you Joel Hamlin and Joshua Shusterman once again for the use of your original songs Magnetize and Flip the Record for the show music. I appreciate what you guys are doing, Teachers, I appreciate what you are doing. I know we are getting right into the, we're a good halfway through the first quarter. If not, then wrapping up that first quarter. For some of you it's a, we're all probably tend to feeling a little tired. We're , we're enjoying school year still, but we have a lot going on. So keep your heads above water and keep doing these great things you're doing with your students. If no one else has told you today, I appreciate what you're doing. Thanks for listening in. Check us out next week.
