[SML] Aggregate hours for majors?

[Nielsen, Tim]

I'll chime in as well.  Obviously, I can only speak for my own experience.

There's a fine line to be managed here.  In an educational program,
the goal is to teach.  Anyone signed up in a theatre class should have
the expectation that they are there to learn new skills and
techniques.  In my experience, the best method for mastering the
skills taught in class is  hands on working on shows.

However, there is the danger of relying on the students to fill in
slots and accomplish necessary work without their educational
experience being the primary purpose.  If the work they are doing
doesn't get tied in to their curriculum, it really is just using
student labor to accomplish (totally necessary) tasks.  Setting up
chairs for a lecture?  Good life skill, great learning opportunity IF
you tie it in to something that they are learning as part of a bigger
picture.  Requiring students in a Stagecraft class to come to work
calls and load in is an perfect example of taking the lessons learned
in a classroom and applying it.

I've got more of an issue with just requiring Majors to accumulate a
certain number of hours in order to graduate.  I have no issue with
looking at the curriculum of classes they need to graduate,
determining a number of practicum hours tied into their classes, and
requiring them to fulfill it.  You can come to the same conclusion,
but the philosophy and approach is different.

John,  I've been in a similar situation of empty theatres during load
in and wanting to require the cast to be there to help.  We had to
change the culture of the department here to be one where everyone
does everything.  We spend a lot of time in rehearsal and in classes
talking about the purpose of theatre-  A group of people coming
together to tell a story to an audience.  It took several years, but
we have far more buy in and willingness to come by.  The way we handle
load ins now is just tell the cast when we are doing it, and let them
know we expect them to come in and help out with whatever time they
have.  And this system has worked for us.  We get people who are gung
ho and there for the entire load in, and we get folks who are there
for 15 minutes because that's all the time they have available.  But
the culture is one where everyone has ownership and a stake in the
show.

In the educational theatre model, plays are not necessarily tied in to
a class.  Anyone can audition, and they rehearse in the evenings
during free time.  You can set up whatever rules you want.  "To be in
this play you are also expected to do X amount of work.  We are a
company coming together to put on this show together".

So I'm falling on both sides of the fence here-  if you are in a show,
of course you should pitch in and help out with whatever needs doing.
But the impulse for that comes from the desire to put on a show-  an
extracurricular.  If you are in a class, you should do work- but you
have to justify its curricular value.  You can justify mopping a
stage, and you can justify having Intro to Theatre students working as
run crew on a play.  Setting up chairs for a lecture?  Sure.  Tie it
into their class.  But the onus falls on the instructor to make it a
learning opportunity and curricular.  That's the job of the
instructor.

I have been in the situation where in an Intro to Theatre class I was
required to be on run crew for a play.  As a person who wanted to make
this a career, I really didn't mind.  But it was completely separate
from what I was taught in my class.  It did feel like I was just used
as a labor pool.  Now, I learned a lot.  It was a great experience.  I
volunteered to do extra assignments.  But it sure as hell didn't get
tied in to what I was learning in the classroom.  It wouldn't have
taken much-  a couple of lectures about the production of theatre and
all the various roles involved.  And after the show a discussion in
the class about the experience of being a part of the play.

There's a very long two cents and I haven't said anything that hasn't
already been touched upon.  But I wanted to chime in, because it's a
question that I come across a lot here and I am very conscious of.

-- 
Timothy Nielsen
Episcopal High School
Technical Director
Office:  (703) 933-4172
Email:  TDN at episcopalhighschool.org