Susan is an actor and director from Danville, KY. Her stage roles include Rose in
Dancing at Lughnasa, Titania in
A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Sister Leo in
Nunsense. She has appeared in independent film and commercials across the state, and has performed in her own original physical theatre piece, "Skeleton", which explores the evolving relationship between a woman and an aging, previously violent, parent. Susan has studied acting with Stella Adler-trained teacher, Janet Scott, in Lexington; directing with Patrick Kagan-Moore at Centre College, in Danville, and has studied with Daniel Stein, at the Dell ’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in California, where she explored the creation of original work as an actor.
In my role as a teaching artist, I can do one of two things:
- I can teach drama, incrementally guiding students to become more comfortable with creating and performing, and also reinforcing and modeling drama terms and concepts.
- I can use drama to incorporate whole-brain learning across the curriculum, helping students connect facts, events, and ideas with stories, images, and kinesthetic movement, so that students can remember information better.
The following are examples of residencies I offer:
1. Drama residencies:
- Drama and improvisation (K – 12)
- Shakespeare (3rd grade – high school)
2. Drama in education residencies:
- Exploring literature or stories through drama (K – 12)
- Industrialization and child labor (5th grade)
- The French Revolution ((10th grade)
- The 1920’s (11th grade)
- Children and teens in the Civil War (8th grade)
- Music History in Motion (grades 5 – 8; drama collaboration with roster artist and musician, Mark Stampley)
Almost any subject can be made more whole-brained through drama. Let’s put our heads together!
For more information see my website at http://web.mac.com/spope8 or contact me.
SAMPLE RESIDENCY PROJECT:
Industrialization and Child Labor at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Duration: 10 sessions
Grade level: 5th Grade
Goals:
Provide students with:
- A relevant social context for better understanding historical events and trends.
- An artistic context for better understanding drama concepts and terminology.
- A safe environment for exploring creative thinking and dramatic expression.
Provide teachers with:
- A model for integrating drama into the curriculum.
Teaching format:
- Students will be provided with information about working children of the early 1900’s and shown photographs of working children of the period. The information will focus on four basic groups of children: field workers (sharecroppers and migrant laborers); mill and mine workers; factory workers; and street workers (newsies, bootblacks, and telegraph messengers). They will also study daily life and culture, listen to music, and learn songs of the period.
- Students will also research their own family history from the period and share their great or great-great grandparent’s stories with the class.
- After learning about each group of workers, students will engage in drama games and improvisations in order to explore the world in which the children lived and worked.
- Students will read primary source quotes in which children of the period describe their work. They will be coached to create a character based on the quote, adding imaginary detail about the character’s life and exploring physical expression.
- Finally, students will adapt elements of class work into a short piece, search for and incorporate basic period-appropriate costume pieces and props, rehearse the piece, and perform it for parents and/or fellow students.
Curriculum Connections:
This lesson fits very well into KY 4.1 Social Studies Core Content for fifth grade, as it addresses the period of industrialization, production of goods and services, use of resources, and immigration. The lesson will address Drama Core Content as well as follows:
Drama Content:
I will use the following Drama Core Content terminology in my lesson, explaining the terms in the context of the work we are doing: script, setting, dialogue, conflict, costumes, props, music, non-verbal expression, facial expression, and gestures.
(AH-04-1.3.1: Elements of Drama)
The class will discuss how we are using drama to share the human experience, and to express and communicate emotions, ideas, and information. (AH-05-3.3.1)
The class will create and perform using the elements of drama (AH-04-4.3.1) and will improvise to tell stories that show action and have a clear beginning, middle, and end. (AH-04-4.3.2)
Social Studies Content:
The class will explore the production of goods (food, textiles, clothing, cigars) and services (shoe shines, newspaper delivery, laundry services) in the U.S. during the period of industrialization and early twentieth century. (SS-05-3.4.1)
The class will use a variety of primary and secondary sources, such as memoirs, letters, quotes from oral history and historic newspapers, photographs, timelines and maps to describe significant events in the history of the U.S. (children being pulled en masse into the work force, development of Jim Crow Laws in the South, state and national movements to abolish child labor) and interpret different perspectives (those of children, parents, bosses, governments, society at large). (SS-05-5.1.1)
The class will explore scarcity and the ways that it required people in the early Twentieth Century to make economic choices and use human resources, and will also explore the costs of doing so, especially the costs to children. (SS-05-3.1.1)
The class will discuss reasons immigrants came to America during the period of industrialization and the early Twentieth Century, reasons many returned to their home countries, and how their return opened up low-paying Northern factory jobs for African Americans who moved north during the Great Migration. (SS-05-5.2.2)