Welcome to PLAYBILLDER Spotlight, where Playbill highlights shows from educational institutions or regional theatres and special events around the country (who have used Playbill's program-building service). By welcoming these PLAYBILLDERs center stage, we hope to give our readers a more in-depth look at theatre programs that are fostering the love of the performing arts in the next generation and the way theatre lovers are bringing Playbill along for life's big moments.
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This week's spotlight is Millington Central Middle High School of Millington, Tennessee and their production of Radio Macbeth. Inspired by Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre on the Air, Radio Macbeth takes place late at night in the guts of an abandoned theatre, where actors circle restlessly around the common shared warmth of a rehearsal table, moving through Shakespeare’s magnetic play. Around them, in the perimeter of the space, the ghosts of all previous productions hover and encroach. The spirits of ambition, violence, fortune, free will, and madness flicker and glow. The actors cling to the sanity of words while the chaos of history grows to be undeniably present with them in the room.
Theatre teacher Justin Burgess shared with Playbill how theatre has turned shy students into effective communicators.
Tell us a little about yourself. How many years have you been teaching?
Justin Burgess: I'm in my second year teaching theatre.
What is your proudest moment as an educator?
My proudest moments are in the last week of the shows we've done. It's chaotic and a lot of new things are thrown at them as we add in the last of the technical aspects and tweak blocking to accommodate them, but they always pull it together in the end. They persevere through the stress and never fail to impress me when the show opens.
Can you share a little bit about the value you see in having a performing arts program in schools?
Performing arts are absolutely necessary to schools. On top of an arts education, which of course is beneficial, they are one of the primary ways students can learn essential life skills. Particularly teamwork, communication, and public speaking. Students in a play or musical embark on a massive, months-long project with a large number of students, often dozens, and they must work together to pull it off. The scale of this teamwork and collaboration is very hard to recreate in a typical classroom setting.
Communication is a quickly disappearing skill among students these days. Giving them opportunities to really focus in on the things they say and the way they're saying them carry over into their day-to day-speaking. Lastly, of course, getting up in front of others is one of the most common fears in our society. Giving students an opportunity to perform or even work backstage in a play are the first steps to overcoming these fears. I have students who just last year were afraid of speaking in a classroom who are now confidently commanding Shakespeare in front of over 100 attendees each night.
What are the most challenging and most rewarding aspects of teaching the performing arts to today’s students?
The most challenging aspect of teaching performing arts is that students underestimate the amount of work that goes into it. Theatre is really hard work. A lot of students think it's as easy as learning lines and showing up, but it's a major time commitment and if you aren't willing to show up and put in the work it's not going to go the way you envision it. The nervousness is hard, but it's nothing compared to the complications that arise from students who aren't prepared for how hard the process is. On the other hand, the most rewarding part of teaching theatre is seeing the growth in students. Seeing them nervous in class one year and then killing it onstage the next fills me with more pride than I know how to describe.
What are your dreams for how your drama department can grow?
I'm hoping my theatre department can continue to scale. Before I started, the program wasn't active, so I've been building it from the ground up. I'm hoping next we can hire a design/tech teacher, so I can focus on acting and theatre history in my classes and I can partner with someone as we produce each season. I'm hoping to start a Theatre PTO, so parents of my students can organize and be directly involved. We have a beautiful performing arts center on our campus, and I'm hoping we can raise enough money to organize it and properly outfit its storage and backstage spaces to best serve our program.
Tell us a little bit about the production. What made you pick the show? How do you choose shows for your students?
First and foremost, this is an educational program. I look for shows that are going to meet my students where they are and provide the best challenge to help them grow as artists. This fall, we tackled Shakespeare, and we did Macbeth as a radio play. We traded the challenge of getting off book and memorizing blocking with learning how Shakespeare works and how to perform it.
What are the kids loving about the show?
Once they got their heads around the language, they're loving the high stakes of the show and the descent into madness of the main characters. They also love the stage blood. Who can blame them?
What message do you have for your students as they take the stage?
As they take the stage, the most important thing they can do is shake off all the stress. We've been putting in a lot of hard work over the last six weeks and that hard work is over. What I care about the most, above everything else, is that they have fun out there.
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