Bethany Mayo: So…how I’ve described it in the past I “I make educational programing, for use in school or at the theatre, for K-12 students” so they can either use theatre to learn something or get more acquainted with other lessons. I’m excited to bring this experience to VSC, my previous experience was directly tied to Shakespeare and theatre education. We talked about language, rhetoric, or English classes…but here I’m more open to do everything! Which I think means more students can take advantage of the benefits of arts integrated learning. Connecting those things back to what students are learning in their classroom, or social skills, how to work in a group…all those skills you need to learn moving forward. It’s
MA: Can you tell me a little about your background?
B: I started a bank teller, believe it or not! My husband and I moved to Baltimore, and once there I finally found a theatre where I felt like I could find my full-time career as an artist. I auditioned, and found that there was a position available as a teaching artist. I took the job, hoping to lead to an opportunity there, but on my first job teaching students in an English class learning Romeo & Juliet I fell in love with the process and seeing what students learned from it. I continued as a teaching artist for 5 years, remaining with a focus on Shakespeare, and learning my voice and style as a theatre educator…I found an opportunity to be a Director of Education at another theatre and thought what’s the worst that could happen?
So I took a chance, applied, got it…found out I wasn’t half bad at it! And so I started to grow. While in the position, I started to wonder “!hat if we did this with other classes? How do we help theatre integrated teaching assist with teaching other courses like history where the content is so dense?” This was what started me on my Master’s Program…so I worked in my first Director of Education job at a theatre while beginning work on my Masters.
Coming from my research, articles and news going all the way back to 1920 classroom professionals keep talking about how the next big thing will be ‘integrating theatre into classroom lesson plans for all topics’ but then here we are today…and it’s still going to be the next big thing. Imagine, What if you learned historical eras from what the most popular dance were? Kinesthetic learners can get engaged physically and hold onto new things learned if we expand their educational experience to include performance, movement, language in these new ways.
MA: How did you come to arrive at your position here at Virginia Stage Company?
B: I moved here with my husband, who’s in the military, and I looked at all the theatres I could back in December of 2020 but no one was hiring. But about 6 weeks ago, in the middle of the night, I had a sudden urge to go “I wonder if that theatre I liked was hiring?” I opened up my computer and saw the Director of Education position was available so I applied. It was like a voice from the universe!
MA: What impact do you hope to have with your time here?
B: What I want to do is…the way VSC’s current Education Program is built is made to operate externally and meet people where they are. What I feel is missing is how our program draws people in, so what I hope to do while I’m here is build the kind of Educational Programming that can bring people here. Combining arts integration skills to figure out where in the local school systems we can be of use, I’m a huge fan of arts in schools. It’s a wonderful tool that helps art meet those students in places and in opportunities where they might not normally get exposed to the theatre for a long time.
Rooting our external programs in a way that engages with the curriculum, but leaves bread crumbs to what we do with our shows back at the theatre and brings those students here. In the version where this doesn’t suck and I don’t get fired, of course!
