MFA Theater Degree Pyramid Scheme

March 7, 2010 by Dennis Baker 

“The discouraging truth is that MFA degrees were created largely to provide-and then satisfy-a prerequisite for obtaining teaching jobs. This in effect rendered the entire system a pyramid scheme.” – Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland

Replace the term “pyramid scheme” with “ponzi scheme”.

It sounds like the MFA Theater Ponzi Scheme that Mike Daisey was talking about.

Filed under: Acting, Teaching, Theater/Theatre
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Must Read Theater Education Blog Posts

February 10, 2010 by Dennis Baker 

I am a HUGE fan of the newly created website Theatre Arts Curriculum Transformation (TACT). ‘Tis the season where I am receiving emails and questions about my process for applying to MFA acting schools and my experience with the Rutgers MFA acting program.

If you are considering applying to theater schools, or considering what schools to attend, you need to stop everything you are doing and read TACT’s five blog posts about Theater Education written by Tom Loughlin, Professor of Theatre at SUNY Fredonia. Start here with Tom’s experience with MFA programs, and note that unfortunately the mindset in MFA programs have not changed much from 1977.

Filed under: Educational Theater, Graduate School, Rutgers, Teaching, Theater/Theatre
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Truth About Theater Education

January 28, 2010 by Dennis Baker 

I am catching up on the last week of theatrosphere blog posts, and while Scott Walter’s whole blog post is a must read, his comment about what he tells his theater students, is what stuck out to me.

I say: “You are getting a degree at a liberal arts university. I am not offering you ‘pre-professional training’ because, frankly, there IS no profession. I am educating you, not training you. I am offering you a lens to see the world through that, should you decide to try to make a life of artistry (which is different from a CAREER in the arts), then you will have four years of reflection and experiment from which to work. If you want to be buffed up for the so-called profession, you need to go down I-40 to Winston-Salem and the NC School of the Arts.” Now, what are others saying? I conjecture that they are selling the Cinderella Myth, pointing at a couple alums who are working occasionally, and teaching their students that what separates the successful from the unsuccessful is that the successful want it more (which is a huge lie, but that shifts the blame for their failure to the students’ shoulders and absolves the teacher entirely). It is a con game, plain and simple.

Filed under: Acting, Educational Theater, Graduate School, Teaching, Theater/Theatre
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Development of an Educational Theater Company

July 27, 2009 by Carrie Edel Isaacman 

This past year I was accepted to a program called TA 101 which was developed by Dr. Carol Fineberg, a researcher and frequent writer about arts education, and Master Teaching Artist Dale Davis, one of the founders who now serves as Executive Director of Association of Teaching Artists.   The course, for teaching artists relatively new to the field, was underwritten by grants from the Dana Foundation and New York Community Trust to the New York State Alliance for Arts Education.

Teaching Artist 101 Program

The program participants met every four weeks for four hours and explored a different topic each month.  We started with “Understanding School Culture” where we learned about schools and the various people that we would be working with in the school system.  We also learned about best ways to collaborate with the teachers in planning sessions.  We learned to develop curriculum, which was especially valuable.  Another important unit was the seminar on psychology and using what we know about in our work with schools.  We also learned about partnerships and grant writing.  Additionally, a unit that I especially loved was the seminar on different learning styles in the classroom.  As classrooms are more inclusive, this seminar was also very helpful.  TA 101 began in September of 2008 and concluded in March of 2009.  Participants were given ample time to feedback their responses to each session as well as the total experience. 

Reflection

I was very impressed by the other teaching artists in the room who were also invited participants.  Some of them had PhDs in Theater, some were already running their own theater companies, and others were already marketing their art to museums and schools.  I learned a lot from their questions to the speakers.  For each seminar, I became more organized and focused with information. I learned how to relate my lesson plans to the New York City DOE Blue Print and NYS Standards as well as various populations.  This was very empowering as I became organized and was more able to plan ahead for what it was that I wanted to do.   Most importantly, it got me to really think about partnerships that I could create.

Work Developed from TA 101 Sessions

I am using the lessons that I learned from TA 101 towards the development of an educational show that I hope to market to the NYC Public Schools.  To start, I am throwing a fundraiser.  

The fundraiser will be August 12th at 8: 30 pm at The Producers Club located at 358 West 44th Street. Tickets are $20.00 which include two drinks, raffle tickets for Coaching sessions, Shakespeare texts, gift bags and other goodies. We’ll have singing of Shakespeare songs by Kelly Nichols and Joe Crow Ryan’s folk singing.

Carrie Edel Isaacman is a regular guest blogger, look for her monthly posts to come out on the 27th of the month. She is currently working as an Adjunct Lecturer through CUNY and substitute teaching in the NYC Public Schools while she pursues her MS in Educational Theater at City College. She is also involved in TA 101 with New York State Alliance for Arts in Education.

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TEDtalks: Sir Ken Robinson says School Kills Creativity

May 25, 2009 by Dennis Baker 

“In the next 30 years more people world wide will be graduating through education than since the beginning of history. Suddenly degrees aren’t worth anything. When I was a student if you had a degree you had a job and if you didn’t have a job it is because you didn’t want one. Now you need an M.A. where the previous job required a B.A. and now you need a PhD for the other. Its the process of academic inflation. It indicates the whole structure of education of shifting beneath our feet.”

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4 days left to win the Twitter Ticket Contest. Click here to Retweet (RT) the free one ticket giveaway for the May 31st performance of New York Theatre Workshop’s Things of Dry Hours.

Filed under: Creativity, Graduate School, Teaching
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Theater Heals

March 14, 2009 by Carrie Edel Isaacman 

Yesterday I went to a teaching artist observation as part of my class in Special Topics with the Manhattan Theater Club. The company has a playwriting/acting residency where students write on themes from current plays they have seen. I visited a school where the students have very advanced life experiences for their age. Some of the students have been in jail and some have just had really rough lives. The writing that the students produce is so full of feeling. As the teaching artist observed, “They get conflict really fast”. That day a situation came up where in a writing exercise that the students prepared, a scene between two characters on the theme of betrayal, a female student wrote on some serious issues involving suicide. The theme of betrayal came from the recent viewing of the MTC’s production of American Plan. The teaching artist and the two visiting actors handled the situation with such sensitivity. During class, they discussed the scene by asking the female student how serious the character is about the violence? After the students were dismissed the teaching artist, actors and our class instructor discussed the student’s writing and the possible issues behind it. Apparently the teacher had already talked with the student at the end of class and there were further plans to talk with the school about it. At that point I said my goodbyes and thanked the teaching artist. I asked if it would be alright to come back. (Technically in the Special Topics class we visit twice for field observation for each play.) He invited me to visit for the culminating event. I will do this, so that I can see the very rich plays that the kids produce, but also to see how that student that I mentioned is doing.

I left the field observation having felt great concern for the student, but also relieved that she will get the help that she needs. In a way, healing took place through the fact that the girl revealed something that she needed: help. And because she asked for help via the writing she may just get that. In this case Theater may have just saved a life.

Carrie Edel Isaacman is a regular guest blogger who is currently working as an Adjunct Lecturer through CUNY and substitute teaching in the NYC Public Schools while she pursues her MS in Educational Theater at City College. She is also involved in TA 101 with New York State Alliance for Arts in Education.

Filed under: Acting, Educational Theater, Teaching
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Living Underneath the Hyphen

February 11, 2009 by Carrie Edel Isaacman 

On one of the first days of class with Jennifer Strycharz at City College of New York in the Drama in Education, the first course in the MS in Educational Theater, she stated, and I regretfully do not remember who she was quoting, but she was quoting someone who talked about being a teaching artist as “living underneath the hyphen”. I really liked this saying about teaching artists and what they do. We are artists who teach.

I hate to sound too over the top but it is just the truth when anyone says the arts will inspire and motivate in a way that traditional learning may miss. In today’s economy where arts are being threatened it occurs to me that to make a commitment to work as a certified teacher in the arts and as a teaching artist it is not enough just to teach, but I have to be an arts advocate.

Some areas that I have taken a real interest in towards including in my work and education is Disabilities in the Arts. During the Teaching Artist 101 course I was so inspired by the representatives that talked about the organization of VSArts.org. I am thinking about purchasing the diversity kit from VSArts.org site. I was so inspired by all that I found there. They even have forms that can help a teaching artist to adjust lesson plans to the particular population that they are working with. I also love all of the informative articles there as well.

I also love to work in any grade level including college age students. I am really enjoying being in education again.

FOLLOW UP: It is Jonathan Neelands is the one who started the term “live beneath the hyphen” . He has several books with wonderful games and exercises that we use in class. Enjoy!

Carrie Edel Isaacman is a regular guest blogger who is currently working as an Adjunct Lecturer through CUNY and substitute teaching in the NYC Public Schools while she pursues her MS in Educational Theater at City College. She is also involved in TA 101 with New York State Alliance for Arts in Education.

Filed under: Educational Theater, Teaching
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MFA Theater Programs = Ponzi Scheme?

February 9, 2009 by Dennis Baker 

Various reactions have come up in regards to Mike Daisey’s original blog post about MFA theater programs.

I like how Daisey responds and reminds the readers that his focus was on “institutional choice to charge tuition that have no relationship with the craft they are teaching.” and “If a teacher is teaching in an MFA program that charges a tuition its students can never pay through the craft, the onus is on the teacher to justify for his or herself how this can be ethical.”

Does the teacher, that is within the academic system that charges a total sum of money that can not be paid off within the profession they are being trained for, have a responsibility to justify why this is ethical? Or do they turn the blind eye because they are getting a steady pay check? I agree with an additional post by Daisey when he states:

I would argue that perhaps one of the largest pitfall network effects of a capitalist society is the tragedy of the commons—in this case it is possible that a universally needed resource (future artists) is being exploited to ensure economic stability for the system today. By telling theater artists today that they must have training, and then making that training out of context to the industry they will be practicing their craft in we hurt the art form as a whole. I’ve had some fantastic teachers in my life, and I love teaching myself. That doesn’t absolve me or anyone else of the responsibility to call out a broken system for its problems.

The thrust of Daisey’s argument lies in the idea that it is very difficult for future theater artists to create theater when they are racked with debt from MFA programs. Most MFA acting programs pride themselves with the notion they are creating professional artists and not teachers. Yet many MFA actors have to look for teaching jobs when they graduate to pay off the debt from school as well as to sustain a living. We might not see the ramifications now, but like the Ponzi Scheme, this pattern of behavior will soon catch up with us.

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Filed under: Acting, Auditioning, Graduate School, Teaching, Theater/Theatre
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NYU Educational Theatre Blog

December 24, 2008 by Dennis Baker 

I have worked up a relationship with the marketing department at NYU Steinhardt and they are having me write a blog of my experience in the NYU Educational Theater program that they will feature on their student blog page. I was happy to do this as I found the blogs very helpful when I was applying and waiting to start classes. In the graduate program you are thrown in pretty fast without much preparation. I am sure the administration figures we are graduate students and don’t need help finding the bookstore, classes, etc. While all this is true its good to hear from the students about what they are learning and experiencing in their classes and as a whole being at NYU. So most of my school related educational theater topics will be posted over there, but no worries I will still keep the DENNIS BAKER LLC readers informed of any broader news.

Filed under: Graduate School, NYU Steinhardt, New York, Teaching, Theater/Theatre
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Shakespeare Handbook

December 20, 2008 by Dennis Baker 

I created a Shakespeare Handbook as part of my final project for my Shakespeare I class. It can be used as an aid for teachers, students and artists. There is a list of group exercises we did with the Youth Ensemble, as well as observations, play analysis and dramaturgy. There is also a journal where I recorded my thoughts observations about each class session and our rehearsal process for our class presentation. I will continue to blog next semester during the Shakespeare II class.

Filed under: Acting, Graduate School, NYU Steinhardt, Shakespeare, Teaching, Theater/Theatre
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